Rey español nombrado en el fondo offshore vinculado a 'regalo' saudita de 65 millones de euros
Las revelaciones amenazan con empañar la imagen del rey seis años después de que se hizo cargo de su padre golpeado por el escándalo
PorJames Badcock MADRID14 de marzo de 2020 • 3:29 pm
El rey de España se ha visto envuelto en una disputa sobre las irregularidades financieras de su padre después de haber sido vinculado a un fondo secreto que ha generado dudas sobre la riqueza de la familia real.
The Telegraph puede revelar que el rey Felipe, de 52 años, es nombrado como beneficiario de un fondo offshore que tiene un regalo de Arabia Saudita de 65 millones de euros que le dio a su padre cuando estaba en el trono.
Las revelaciones amenazan con empañar la imagen limpia y reluciente del rey Felipe
seis años después de que se hizo cargo de Juan Carlos , de 82 años, prometiendo un descanso limpio de su padre golpeado por el escándalo.
King Felipe now faces calls to reveal the extent of his personal wealth and interests, including any money held in foreign bank accounts.
“It would be in the Royal Household’s interest to clear up this matter, and something you would expect from an intelligent person such as the current king,” Pablo Echenique, parliamentary spokesman of Unidas Podemos, the junior partner in Spain’s coalition government.
“The amount of suspicions now on the table have reached a critical mass that no healthy democracy could withstand,” Mr Echenique told The Sunday Telegraph in reference to ongoing judicial investigations in Switzerland and Spain related to offshore financial operations involving the former king.
According to documents seen by The Telegraph, Juan Carlos set up the Lucum Foundation on July 31, 2008, with an office in Panama City and an account at Mirabaud private bank in Geneva to hold a €64,884,405-euro “donation” from “the king of Saudi Arabia”.
King Juan Carlos of Spain is received by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz 08 April 2006
It is not clear why Juan Carlos received the gift but the Spanish and Saudi royal families were known to be close. In September last year the former king's one-time lover was questioned over her claims that Juan Carlos pocketed money from a high-speed train contract with Saudi Arabia.
In Lucum’s statutes, King Felipe, then the Prince of Asturias, is named as the foundation’s second beneficiary, and charged by his father with the duty to look after the rest of the family in the event of him inheriting the fund.
“The second beneficiary must […] provide maintenance for the lifetime of all members of the royal family”, and “satisfy any reasonable request that may be made on him” by his mother, sisters and their children.
Among the account movements detailed in the Lucum Foundation documents are four “cash transfers to Spain for personal needs” in the first six months of 2009 amounting to just over 800,000 euros.
The new documents are revealed days after anticorruption prosecutors in Spain asked a Swiss court for information on a reported gift from late Saudi King Abdullah to Juan Carlos.
A Swiss public prosecutor in Geneva is also investigating possible irregularities in another fund named Fondation Zagatka holding a commission taken from the disastrous sale of a Spanish bank to Barclays.
The principal beneficiary of the fund is Álvaro d’Orleans-Borbón, a 73-year-old cousin of Juan Carlos, who used the money to pay for €5 million of private flights taken by the former Spanish king between 2016 and 2019,
The Telegraph revealed last week.
In a 2006 document establishing the statutes of Zagatka, the name of Spanish King Felipe also appears, this time as fourth beneficiary behind Mr d’Orleans-Borbón, his son and former King Juan Carlos.
The revelations constitute the first time that King Felipe has been directly linked to Juan Carlos’s alleged offshore fortune.
The Royal Household and Mr d’Orleans-Borbón declined to comment.
Last week Spain’s three largest political parties blocked requests by Unidas Podemos and other groups in Congress to hold an investigatory commission in the light of recent allegations aired in the media concerning Juan Carlos’s financial activities.
Gestha, the union that represents Spain’s tax inspectors, issued a statement on Tuesday asking Spain’s AEAT tax agency to open an investigation into Juan Carlos for “alleged tax fraud and money laundering” from 2015.
Spain’s Constitution says the figure of the king is “immune from responsibility”, and a law was passed specifically for Juan Carlos when he abdicated meaning he can only be prosecuted in the Supreme Court for acts committed after his reign.
Sin embargo, Luis Rodríguez Ramos, profesor de derecho penal, cree que la inmunidad aparente en la constitución no está completa debido a una cláusula que establece que las acciones del rey deben ser refrendadas por un ministro.
"Si esto se interpretara estrictamente, cuando estamos hablando de una actividad privada que claramente no está refrendada por ninguna otra autoridad, parecería que tales acciones quedan fuera del alcance de esta inmunidad".
"Cobrar comisiones como intermediario y tener cuentas en el extranjero no forma parte del papel del jefe de Estado", dice el ex magistrado de la Corte Suprema, José Antonio Martín Pallín.
Manuel Cancio, profesor de derecho penal en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, cree que la inmunidad del rey es total mientras está en el trono, pero que aún podría ser acusado de lavado de dinero relacionado con su extensa fortuna desde que abdicó.
Martin Pallín dijo que sería "inmoral y antipatriótico" si el rey actual tenía dinero en el extranjero mientras estaba sentado en el trono español y "una violación de los principios de ética, imparcialidad y solidaridad en asuntos económicos".