Swiss prosecutor investigates whether Saudi Arabia misappropriated public funds in donation of 65 million to King Emeritus

Juan Carlos I on a trip to Taif (Saudi Arabia) to offer condolences to the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdelaziz in 2012 ... / (EPA) efe

The Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa, who is investigating the alleged payment of a commission for the works of the AVE to Mecca built by a consortium of Spanish companies, has requested a report from the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law to determine if there was an abuse in the use of public funds by the Government of Saudi Arabia in the "donation" of 100 million dollars (65 million euros) in 2008 from the Ministry of Finance of that country to an account in Geneva of Juan Carlos I, as indicated to EL PAÍS case sources.

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• The Swiss financial authority opens a file with the bank where Juan Carlos I's 65 million were deposited

The institute, an autonomous body of the Swiss Confederation attached to the Federal Department of Justice and Police, is a prestigious center for legal consultation and international foreign law based in Lausanne (Switzerland) where judges and prosecutors in that country go to learn about the legal framework in which the transnational crimes they investigate move. According to the prosecutor, the Spanish winning companies granted a reduction of thirty percent in their offer.

The chief prosecutor of Geneva wants to know how Saudi law contemplates bribery crimes and if the Ministry of Finance of that country had the right to issue the transfer of 100 million dollars that it made, on August 8, 2008, to the account of the Panamanian Lucum Foundation at the Mirabaud & Cie. Also, he wants to clarify in what way that ministry should justify this donation. The first beneficiary of the Swiss account was the then Head of the Spanish State.

The lawyers of Arturo Fasana, the external manager of the Swiss account of the King Emeritus, Dante Canónica, the director of the Lucum Foundation, and Corinna Larsen, examine Juan Carlos I, all of them investigated in Switzerland for an alleged crime of money laundering aggravated capital, have also requested similar reports from different agencies specialized in the legislation of Saudi Arabia, according to sources of the investigation. His defenses maintain that the payment of the 100 million was a donation from King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz, now deceased, to Juan Carlos I.

In one of the last judicial hearings held by Bertossa with those investigated, the prosecutor told them that he was studying the sending of a rogatory commission (request for judicial assistance) to Saudi Arabia to ask for the details of the payment of these 100 million dollars, according to ensures a knowledgeable source of the process. So far there is no evidence that the prosecutor has taken that step. Arab countries do not respond to this kind of requests from European judges, according to Swiss and Spanish judicial sources. On the possibility of inquiring into the Saudi donation, these sources predict a short journey.

Al Jubeir, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, former adviser to King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz and one of the most media figures of the Saudi Government, was the person who allegedly endorsed the donation to Juan Carlos I, as revealed a year ago by this newspaper. Arturo Fasana, the manager of the emeritus king's account, told Bertossa that he met with the Saudi diplomat on two occasions, in Washington (USA), where he was then ambassador, and at the airport in Basel (Switzerland). According to his version, Al Jubeir told him that the 100 million “was not the payment for any service. It is a gift for his brother ”.

Except for the transfer to the Mirabaud & en Cie bank, there is not a single document from the Saudi Government that explains the cause of the alleged donation. In the document

know your client

(”knows your client”, in English), form of the bank that Fasana filled out as manager of the account, this argued it as “free donation”. The bank did not ask for further explanations. Only six of the bank's partners knew that the beneficiary of the Lucum account was the head of the Spanish state. The contract was kept in a safe.

When three years are about to be completed since the beginning of his investigation, Bertossa will travel to Madrid in the next few days to meet with the Supreme Court prosecutor Ignacio Campos and with Alejandro Luzón, the chief anti-corruption prosecutor. The objective is to exchange information on their respective inquiries.

The trip of the chief prosecutor of Geneva was communicated by Bertossa himself to those investigated during the last hearing held recently in that city. Swiss law obliges prosecutors to notify the parties to a process of any displacement related to their investigations. On May 14, Bertossa sent to the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office the movements of the accounts of the Zagatka Foundation of Álvaro de Orleans, a distant cousin of the King Emeritus, in two Swiss banks. This foundation paid more than eight million euros in private flights to Juan Carlos I. Spanish prosecutors want to verify that Zagatka's accounts coincide with the last fiscal regularization of Juan Carlos I in which he paid 4.4 million for these payments in kind .

In Spain, the Prosecutor's Office of the high court has been processing criminal investigation procedures for months on the alleged collection of commissions from the king emeritus and an indication of money laundering, against the Public Treasury, bribery and influence peddling. This would be the second meeting of the Geneva prosecutor with his Spanish colleagues. The first took place in October 2019 to meet with the prosecutors of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.