More news on the opaque accounts of the Spanish royal family. The proxies acting for Spain's king Juan Carlos I set up two further offshore companies, one in Panama and the other based in Vaduz (Liechtenstein), to divert money from the Zagatka Foundation to his closest relatives, digital newspaper Okdiario reported this Tuesday. It was an approach that ensured a high level of opacity, carried out through two accounts previously opened in Geneva (Switzerland) in the banks Credit Suisse and Lombard Odier, from which funds were offloaded into other parts of the financial network that the king emeritus maintained abroad.
These latest offshore entities are the Panamanian company Lactuva S.A. and the Vaduz-based Fondation Endaxi, unearthed by the Swiss prosecutor investigating Juan Carlos I's screen companies. The managers of the Zagatka foundation transferred about 85,000 euros to the first company between February and July 2008, according to the investigations of prosecutor Yves Bertossa. The inquiries also indicate that the second offshore firm began receiving money from the foundation over the same period, and this ended up in the hands of Juan Carlos's closest relatives.
Opaque movements
The limited company Lactuva S.A. became “inactive” on September 10th, 2019, shortly after the start of investigations into management figures Dante Canonica and Arturo Fasana. It had been registered on November 15th, 2000, almost 21 years ago. For its part, the Fondation Endaxi was registered before 2008.
Records of banking operations show how Canonica ordered a transfer of about 4,600 euros in 2008 to the Union Bank of Switzerland (Geneva). A month earlier, Fasana had authorized the transfer of 19,030 euros to the Panama firm, while the transfers to the Vaduz foundation were carried out from a Credit Suisse account in Swiss francs. In 2016, movements between the Zagatka Foundation and Endaxi were again recorded, using an account in the Lombard Odier bank that had been opened in 2015.
Spanish royal family, beneficiaries
The king emeritus named his wife, his children and his grandchildren as beneficiaries of the Zagatka Foundation, also registered in the capital of Liechtenstein. The Alpine principality is a tax shelter with the same obscure features as some Caribbean fiscal havens, but in the heart of Europe.
Zagatka was incorporated in Vaduz in 2003 and was operational until July 2018. The accounts of the front company provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the real beneficiary was Juan Carlos himself, although the documentation asserts that it was the former king's cousin Alvaro d'Orleans, another proxy figure. The fact is that the man who was Spanish head of state until 2014 systematically accessed the Credit Suisse and Lombard Odier accounts to cover his personal financial affairs.
Main image: Spain's king emeritus, Juan Carlos I / Europa Press