The leading German daily paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine, has published an in-depth report on the “scandal" of the 100 million dollar bank account held by Spain's king emeritus Juan Carlos I in Geneva. According to Swiss media, the money may have come from commissions paid on the Spanish contract to build a high speed rail system in Saudi Arabia.
Under the headline "Scandal in the Spanish Royal House", the German newspaper points out that, according to Swiss prosecutors, the bank account in Switzerland had 100 million dollars that came from Saudi Arabia. "The money is said to have been transferred by the Saudi Ministry of Finance at the time when King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, with whom Juan Carlos had good relations, was governing in Riyadh.
According to the Tribune de Genève, Juan Carlos gave some 60 million dollars to his former lover Corinna Larsen. The Frankfurter Allgemeine explains that Corinna Larsen’s lawyer has denied any relationship with the accusations of corruption regarding the contract award of the high speed rail system works between Medina and Mecca in 2011. The German paper goes on: "Secretly recorded evidence appeared two years ago. In the recordings, Corinna Larsen spoke of Juan Carlos receiving a commission of around 80 million euros for the railway business. "He doesn't distinguish between what is legal and what is illegal", Corinna is said to have claimed.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine: "Scandal in Spanish Royal House. An uncomfortable gift."
The conclusion of the Frankfurter is that the Spanish crown’s wish to calm the waters of their reputation has been frustrated: "The Spanish royal family was expecting in vain for peace to return. Since he had heart surgery last summer, Juan Carlos has rarely been seen in public. But once again the past is catching up to him, and so is his old relationship with close friend Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. Eight years ago, the German lady, much younger than the monarch, accompanied him on an elephant hunt in Botswana, when Juan Carlos broke his hip. The trip, at the height of the economic crisis, plunged the Spanish monarchy into one of its most serious crises, and contributed significantly to Juan Carlos's abdication two years later.”