Spain drops probes into former king Juan Carlos’ wealth
- The investigations over alleged financial wrongdoing had prompted the ex-monarch to leave the country and move to Abu Dhabi
- His potential return to Spain is a highly divisive issue, and his successor, King Felipe VI, has tried to distance himself from his father
Spanish prosecutors are shelving two investigations into alleged financial wrongdoing in Juan Carlos I’s business dealings that prompted the former monarch to move from Spain to Abu Dhabi.
Prosecutors in the Spanish Supreme Court said Wednesday they did not find evidence that could be prosecuted, because the monarch was protected by immunity until his abdication eight years ago and because any possible fraud fell out of the statute of limitations.
The probes allowed the recovery of €5.1 million (US$5.6 million) in fines and taxes for income that Juan Carlos had failed to declare to Spain’s tax authorities, the prosecutors said in their conclusions.
One of the probes involved offshore accounts in Jersey, a tax haven, that prosecutors said could not currently be linked to the 84-year-old Juan Carlos.
The other one centred around a €65 million (US$72-million) payment that was suspected to be a commission for the former monarch’s mediation in a high-speed railway contract between the Saudi Arabian cities of Medina and Mecca.