Dilip Kuner
SPANISH singer and convicted money launderer Isabel Pantoja has been cleared at her latest trial.
A Malaga court has found her not guilty in a case of ‘punishable insolvency’ over the sale of her plush Marbella villa.
The prosecutor had asked for her to be jailed for three years. In 2014 she had been sentenced to two years jail and ordered to pay a €1.1 million fine for her part in the infamous Malaya corruption case in Marbella.
Sevilla-born Pantoja is regarded as Spanish singing royalty with a huge following in the Spanish-speaking world.
In 1983 she married bullfighter Francisco Rivera Pérez ‘Paquirri‘. The romantic image of the Romany singer marrying the heroic bullfighter entrenched her in the Spanish consciousness.
But tragedy struck on September 26, 1984 when he died in the bullring.
Pantoja became known as ‘Spain’s widow’ in the media. She has remained a favourite subject for gossip columns and has rarely been off the screen since.
Pantoja has released more than a dozen albums and has toured Spain and Latin America extensively over the years.
But her image was severely tarnished when Pantoja helped her then lover, Marbella ex-mayor Julian Muñoz, launder money, illicitly obtained from Marbella Town Hall.
At the time a Malaga court returned a unanimous verdict recognising her part in a political corruption case described as ‘one of the most devastating in democratic society’.
Pantoja was not the only partner of Muñoz to find herself in hot water at the time. His ex-wife Maite Zaldivar was given a two-and-a-half year jail sentence, also for helping her ex-husband launder money.
Both women were aware of the illegality of the money, according to the court.
Muñoz was given a six-and-a-half-year sentence for money laundering and bribery.
The latest case was brought after she gave power of attorney to her brother Agustín to sell her residence in Marbella ‘or pay what was owed’.
She was in jail at the time.
Her danger was that the house could be repossessed and she could lose ‘all her assets’ as they had been used as collateral.
The prosecutor had alleged that a shady agreement was reached between the company through which Pantoja owned the house and another company that left a third party having to agree to a much reduced repayment for an €800,000 debt.
Pantoja is now set to fly to South America for a tour to pay off her debts.
She has an initial four concerts in Argentina, Peru and Chile, with more planned. The first step is to pay the €414,080 she owes in tax.
She also owes €1.5 million on her mortgage for another property, which has not been paid for two years. She avoided having it repossessed by putting up receipts for her Latin America tour as collateral.
READ MORE:
- Marbella seize huge estates worth €6.5 million from disgraced Malaya town planner Roca
- Disgraced former Marbella town planner Juan Roca to lose €28 million ‘crown jewel’ from property portfolio
- Isabel Pantoja: gypsy, widow, queen (and criminal?)
