Son-in-law of Spanish king faces charity cash inquiry

SPAIN’s King Juan Carlos has forbidden his son-in-law from taking part in official ceremonies while he is under investigation into the alleged misuse of public money given to a charitable institute he presided over in Mallorca.

The decision regarding Inaki Urdangarin, the husband of the monarch’s daughter Princess Cristina, is an unusual one and was made public in a rare meeting held yesterday by the Royal Palace’s chief of staff, Rafael Spottorno, with Spanish media.

Mr Urdangarin, 43, is reportedly suspected of siphoning away funds from public contracts awarded from 2004 to 2006 to the Noos Institute, a non-profit foundation he then headed.

The allegation looks terrible for the royal family at a time of acute hardship and economic crisis in Spain, where unemployment stands at 21.5 per cent.

Juan Carlos, 73, is widely respected across Spain for overseeing the country’s tense transition to democracy following Francisco Franco’s nearly four-decade-long dictatorship. His son, Prince Felipe, is heir to the throne.

Mr Urdangarin has not been charged with a crime. He issued a statement on Saturday saying he regrets the “damage” the case is doing to the royal family but admitted no wrongdoing.

Mr Spottorno insisted on presumption of innocence and urged investigators to conclude their inquiry soon as he announced that Mr Urdangarin will for now be removed from the royal family’s agenda and no longer attend any official ceremonies. It is not yet known if the princess will also stay away from such activities.

The couple and their four children now live in Washington, DC, where Mr Urdangarin, a former professional handball player, works for the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica.

No court papers have been made public, but Spanish newspapers have quoted investigators as saying that Mr Urdangarin is suspected of having taken part of about €6 million (£5.1m) the foundation received from the regional governments in Valencia and the Balearic Islands for organising events such as sports seminars. The money is said to have gone to for-profit companies that Mr Urdangarin ran.

The case is part of a broader, long-running corruption investigation involving the regional government in the Balearic Islands, the capital of which is Palma on the island of Mallorca. The Urdangarin slice of it has been front-page news for two weeks, and forced the Royal Palace to take the rare step of addressing publicly the activities of one of its members.

Mr Spottorno also said that by the end of the month, the Royal Palace website will for the first time publish a breakdown of the money earmarked for the family in the government budget. It was €8.43m in 2011.