Laurence Crumbie
SPAIN’S Supreme Court is investigating new charges of corruption against the country’s former monarch.
The general attorney’s office has ordered anticorruption and organised crime prosecutors to hand over reports on the king emeritus so that it could continue investigations.
Although no details were given, the news came hours after el.Diario revealed that Juan Carlos, his wife Queen Sofia and other royal family members were being investigated for the use of bank accounts not held in their names.
According to the online newspaper, the Anticorruption Office has been investigating both the expenses on these credit cards and the origins of their funds, which appear to be foreign.
It also reported that authorities have uncovered indications of a tax offence, as an undeclared €120,000 was transferred in a single transaction.
And crucially, these financial transactions were carried out between 2016 and 2018, after Juan Carlos’ abdication in 2014, meaning that he no longer enjoys crown immunity.
These latest charges form part of a long list of disgraces for Spain’s former king, who now lives in exile. In 2018, allegations emerged that he had received a €88 million pay-off from Saudi Arabian king Abdullah 10 years earlier to help secure commercial contracts for the construction of a €6.7 billion rail line between Mecca and Medina.
He also went on an infamous elephant-hunting trip to Botswana in 2008, while the rest of Spain was reeling from the financial crash.
Although some blue-blooded family members are thought to have benefited from the credit currently under investigation, Spain’s current king and queen, Felipe de Borbon and Letizia Ortiz, are not among them.
