Laurence Dollimore
EXILED Spanish King Juan Carlos I has denied trying to withdraw €10 million from a ‘secret’ bank account in Jersey.
According to El Mundo, details of the alleged transaction are being analysed by Spanish prosecutors after it was detected by the Executive Commission of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Fraud (Sepblac).
But the disgraced royal, who has been in the Arab Emirates since August, has reportedly told his closest circle that he is shocked by the report sent to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s office, which led to the third investigation to be opened against him in a year.
Don Juan Carlos, who abdicated the throne in 2014, maintains that ‘he is not responsible for any trust in Jersey and that he never has been, directly or indirectly’, reported El Mundo.
Sepblac first revealed last week that the so-called King Emeritus is a beneficiary of a trust in the Channel Islands worth at least €5 million.
According to prosecutors, the trust dates back to the 90s and has ‘registered movements of capital very recently.’
Details of the trust have been sent to prosecutors, who earlier this year began to investigate two other alleged cases of money laundering and tax crime.
The first is the transfer of €65 million from Saudi Arabia to Juan Carlos’s mistress Corinna Larsen in 2012.
However as this took place during his reign, Juan Carlos is immune from prosecution and that probe has therefore been shelved, reports El Mundo.
The other case is much more recent and involves a potential kickback scheme between Juan Carlos and Mexican-British billionaire Allen Sangines-Krause.
Sangines-Krause was reportedly depositing large amounts of money into the account of Juan Carlos’s aide and Air Colonel Murga Mendoza.
Authorities were alerted last year when they detected payments of €120,000 into Mendoza’s account, figures which did not match the monarch’s aide’s salary.
That cash was then allegedly spent by Juan Carlos and other members of the royal family using credit cards linked to the account.
Mendoza claimed the expenses were ‘gifts’ he wanted to share with the former king and his family.
