The King Emeritus, upon his arrival last January at the funeral of the Infanta Doña Pilar.Jose Velasco / Europa Press /
Four months after his departure from Spain to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), King Emeritus, Juan Carlos I, has submitted a statement to the Tax Agency to regularize his tax situation.
The letter, sent through his lawyer, Javier Sánchez-Junco, is still being analyzed by the Treasury, which must respond in the next few days if it accepts the regularization or requests clarification and what is the amount to be paid.
According to sources familiar with the case, the statement is not related to his possible assets abroad, but to the use of bank cards by Juan Carlos I and his relatives with opaque funds from the Mexican businessman Allen Sanginés-Krause, who is being investigated by the Office of the Supreme Court Prosecutor.
The presentation of a voluntary declaration to regularize his situation with the Treasury has been on the table since the ex-lover of the king emeritus, Corinna Larsen, declared that Juan Carlos I had given him 65 million euros from a donation made by the King of Arabia Saudi, Abdullah bin Abdelaziz.
However, according to the sources consulted, the voluntary declaration presented by Don Juan Carlos's lawyer before the Tax Agency does not refer to the assets that his client may have abroad, but to the use of opaque cards by the Royal Family .
The Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office is investigating the alleged use by the emeritus king and several of his relatives - among whom would not be found King Felipe and Letizia - of credit cards linked to current accounts of which he is not the holder.
The money belonged to his friend and Mexican businessman Allen Sanginés-Krause, who allegedly made it available to Don Juan Carlos without his declaring it to the Treasury or through donation.
The use of the cards occurred between 2016 and 2018, when the emeritus king had already abdicated and lost immunity.
The amount defrauded would exceed 120,000 euros in some years, a limit from which it is considered a tax offense, punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Prosecutor's Office has already questioned the Mexican businessman friend of the King Emeritus and the Colonel of the Air Force Nicolás Murga Mendoza, who was his aide-de-camp for a decade, from 2007 to 2017, and who had the cards to pay gifts and personal expenses of Juan Carlos I and his relatives.
Depending on the moment in which the voluntary declaration was presented, the effects would be different.
Until last September, the last non-prescribed fiscal year was 2015. If he had submitted it before that date, Juan Carlos I could have made the supplementary declaration for that exercise, which was precisely the first in which he no longer enjoyed immunity as head of State.
With his initiative before the Treasury, the lawyer of the emeritus king tries to neutralize the investigation opened on this matter in the Supreme Prosecutor's Office.
Voluntary regularization can occur at any time before the Tax Agency opens an inspection or a judge summons to testify as being investigated for alleged tax fraud or money laundering, which supposedly had not happened yet, although the anti-corruption prosecutor had been investigating since 2019 .
The Treasury is still analyzing the brief presented by Sánchez-Junco and must decide in the next few days if it demands more information.
If the lawyer of the king emeritus managed to deactivate the case of the cards with the payment of a fine, he would take a very important step in the path of clearing the tangle of investigations open to his client in the Supreme Prosecutor's Office.
Sánchez-Junco hopes that the Prosecutor's Office will end up filing the investigation opened for the alleged collection of commissions from the AVE to Mecca, since the events date back to 2012, when Juan Carlos I enjoyed immunity, although it is assumed that the letter that end the case will contain harsh recriminations towards his conduct.
Regarding the third of the investigations, the alleged existence of companies based in the tax haven of Jersey and linked to Juan Carlos I, according to a report from the Bank of Spain's Money Laundering Prevention Service (Sepblac), this has assured How many people have been asked why it must be a mistake because he claims that he has no society on that island in the English Channel.
The return of Juan Carlos I is pending that the prosecutor Juan Ignacio Campos —favorite to become lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court— files the three investigations or files the corresponding complaint.
The King Emeritus has been in the Gulf for four months, as the guest of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the Emirates, and so far it is only known that he has received a visit from one of his daughters, Infanta Elena .
The question of whether he will temporarily return to Spain to spend the Christmas holidays with his family has not even been cleared up.
In a recent interview with EL PAÍS, the Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, insisted that the King Emeritus does not have any open cause, so he can return whenever he wants and, “if there were an appeal, it would not take at all come".
The statement on the funds of the opaque cards leaves pending the regularization of the possible assets and rights that Juan Carlos I possesses abroad, apart from the 65 million transferred to Corinna Larsen.
To regularize them, you should file a model 720 return, according to tax experts.
The price of the regularization would not be cheap, since the rate to be paid would be around 50% of the value of the goods and rights.
To this figure should be added a surcharge of 20% for untimely declaration and late payment interest, in addition to a testimonial penalty (about 1,500 euros).
That is, to regularize your assets abroad, you should pay the Treasury most of its value.
However, this route, which was designed by the PP Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, in 2012, is pending the ruling of the EU Court of Justice.
Millionaire gifts hidden in Swiss banks and foundations
The track of the money that Juan Carlos I accumulated abroad, either in his name or in the name of figureheads, leads to several foundations and some millionaire friends.
The first clue is located on October 1, 2003, when the Za gatka Foundation was established in the name of Álvaro de Orleans, a distant cousin of the king emeritus, with a capital of 14 million euros.
Juan Carlos I is the third beneficiary of the foundation;
his son, King Felipe VI, the fourth.
Zagatka's funds were used to pay, until 2018, the King's private flights for about eight million.
The foundation modified its regulations last June to eliminate Juan Carlos I and King Felipe as the third and fourth beneficiaries. The second track of the money is found in the Panamanian Lucum foundation, whose first beneficiary is Juan Carlos I and the second, the king. Felipe.
Lucum opened an account at the Swiss bank Mirabaud.
On August 8, 2008, the account entered 100 million dollars (65 million euros at the then exchange rate).
The only bank documentation that certifies this income indicates that it is a gift from the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdalá bin Abdelaziz, to Juan Carlos I. In June 2012, that account was emptied by a donation of all the funds that the King Emeritus He did his ex-lover Corinna Larsen. Arturo Fasana, a Swiss manager who managed the King's estate, recounts how in 2010 Juan Carlos I showed up at his home with a suitcase containing 1.9 million euros, an alleged gift from the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa al Jalifa. The King Emeritus has three open investigations in the Supreme Prosecutor's Office.
The first, due to the alleged collection of illegal commissions in the works of the AVE to Mecca awarded for 6,500 million to a Spanish consortium.
The second, by the disposition of money of a Mexican businessman by the king emeritus.
The third tries to clarify whether Juan Carlos I owns companies in the tax haven of Jersey with millionaire funds.