A SECRET offshore trust linked to the disgraced former King of Spain has made another mysterious multi-million-euro donation to a British charity.
The JRM 2004 Trust, based in the tax haven of Jersey, has donated a further €3.5 million to the Refugee Council, a London-based charity founded in 1951 that provides support and advice to refugees and asylum seekers.
The organisation, whose list of patrons include British actress Dame Emma Thompson, has now received a staggering €7.6 million from the trust’s administrators since its Spanish historian and banker owner died widowed and childless in 2022.
Upon his death, Joaquin Romero Maura, who held a PhD from Oxford University, bequeathed his entire estate to the charity, including his London and French homes and a Swiss bank account.
The amount, understood to be in the region of €10 million, is now currently being paid in annual instalments after the Refugee Council spent six months investigating the origins of the unexpectedly large will.
“Following a robust due diligence process and with agreement from our trustees, we have decided to accept the generous legacy donation from Mr Joaquin Romero Maura,” executive director of fundraising and external affairs Tamsin Baxter said in 2023.
“We are thrilled as this gift will allow us to make a big difference in the lives of refugees and people seeking asylum.”
The exact origins of Maura’s fortune remain unclear.
It is alleged that the trust, set up in 2004, contains part of a €15 million undeclared fortune that Juan Carlos I is said to have hidden offshore since the 1990s.
Documents suggest the money passed through several offshore trusts in the British Virgin Islands and Jersey originally created to financially protect the former King, who abdicated the throne in disgrace in 2014, in the event of a coup.
Some of the funds reportedly came from donations made by supporters and an €8 million gift from Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the former King of Bulgaria.
When setting up the trust, Maura, who was a close friend of Juan Carlos’ closest financial advisor, reportedly told banks that the King had given him the funds to avoid embarrassment to the Spanish monarchy if their existence became public.
But Maura’s decision to bequeath his entire estate to a British charity has reportedly rubbed the 88-year-old ex-monarch up the wrong way.
According to El Pais, Juan Carlos has recently privately complained that he still considers the fortune to be his own.
Spain’s anti-corruption prosecutor investigated the trust in 2020 but closed the case after finding no evidence that Juan Carlos controlled the assets or benefited from them after they were transferred to Maura.
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