Duke of Palma Indicted and Spanish Royal Family Release Finances

King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofía and the Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the XV Ibero-American Summit (Salamanca, 2005) - copyright Claudio Vaz, Creative Commons

 

The Duke of Palma, Inaki Urdangarin, who is the son in law of King Juan Carlos of Spain has been officially indicted on fraud and corruption charges. He is set to appear in court on February 6th in Palma de Mallorca.  The Duke, who is married to the King’s daughter, Princess Cristina, is being investigated over the misuse of public funds that were given to a foundation he was running between 2004 and 2006. It’s alleged the money never made it into the foundation’s coffers, but instead was diverted to several companies run by the Duke of Palma. He denies all charges.

The amount of money missing is said to be around 6 million euros, which was given to the Duke’s foundation, Noos Institute.  It was supposed to have been used to help organize several sports events.

Interestingly, in response to this, the Spanish royal family revealed their finances yesterday — for the first time ever. King Juan Carlos is paid 292,752 euros ($380,577), on which he pays 40 percent in taxes. The total budget for the entire Spanish royal family for 2011 was 8.4 million euros (approximately $11 million). The amount however was cut by five percent in 2011, due to Spain’s economic problems, and the king’s salary is 15 percent less than last year, for the same reason.

The Palace was also quick to point out that the Duke of Palma had never received any public money from the Palace.