Palace investigated the Duke of Palma in 2007

Palace investigated the Duke of Palma in 2007
larger | smaller
By h.b. - Dec 18, 2011 - 10:18 AM
The Duke still has a Christmas greeting on the royal website, despite being taken off official duties

The Duke and Duchess of Palma's Christmas greeting

The Royal Household tried to put the business interests of Urdangarin in order in 2007, according to a report in Saturday’s El País. They got in contact with a Catalan legal office and proposed the creation of a foundation. At that time the Duke of Palma was obtaining several million € from public administrations with his private companies and with the Nóos Institute.

El País reported on Sunday that the Palace had asked Urdangarin to look for employment outside Spain, and an envoy from the Palace advised him to abandon the Nóos Institute. The paper says it was making such requests back in the spring of 2006.

El Mundo reported Sunday that Urdangarin tricked the King with a foundation for disabled people. It says that it was not until this week that the Palace realised that money had been sent via the children’s foundation FDCIS.

A court in Palma has been investigating Urdangarin for the misuse of public funds and defrauding the administration. He had obtained contracts for 2.3 million € to organise congresses on tourism and sport on the Baleares.
Both the Valencia and Baleares regions are taking court action to try and reclaim the money defrauded from them.

El País reports that 20% of the Duke’s largest contract ended up in his private business, and the Duke is alleged to have employed himself for 116,000 € of public money.

Despite the current concerns the Duke continues to appear among the royal Christmas cards this year. There is one of his family as normal despite the decision of the Palace to take him off official duties.

However the wax museum in Madrid has decided to move the Duke from the royal section and has placed him in sports, given he used to play handball for Spain.

Click here for related stories

mobile |

email this article | print

printer friendly page

More Spain News : Baleares

Readers' comments:
Please keep to the subject. Opinions published here are of our visitors, not the Typically Spanish team. Comments which go against Spanish laws or which are libellous are not allowed. We reserve the right to delete any comment we wish. Placing a comment indicates you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy.

Por favor, céntrate en el tema. Son las opiniones de los internautas, y no las de Typically Spanish. No está permitido verter comentarios contrarios a las leyes españolas o injuriantes. Reservado el derecho a eliminar los comentarios que consideremos fuera de tema. Escribir un comentario indica que has leído nuestros condiciones de uso y politica de privacidad.