Spain’s Princess Cristina, sister of King Felipe, found not guilty in tax trial while husband receives jail sentence
While the 51 year-old, and sixth in line to the throne, was cleared in the infamous tax case which has enraged and engrossed the nation, her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, was handed a six-year-and-three-month jail sentence by the court in Majorca. Urdangarin was accused of using his royal connections to generate business income used for private spending. spain tax trial, spain tax court case, princess cristina money,
The trial, which initially started in 2010, has become symbolic of the comprehensive and large-scale corruption allegations and charges leveled at Spain’s elites, which now extends to the royal family.
There were 16 other defendants in the case, including former government minister Jaume Matas, who was sentenced to three years and eight months and Urdangarin’s former business partner, Diego Torres, who received an given eight-year-and-six-month sentence. spain tax trial, spain tax court case
Princess Cristina, who is the first member of Spain’s royal family to go on trial since the monarchy’s restoration in 1975, was stripped of her title by King Felipe in 2015 in the wake of the scandal. spain’s princess cristina tax
Although she was absolved, Princess Cristina will still have to pay a fine of €265,000 (£227,000; $282,000) as she has civil responsibility for benefiting, although unknowingly, from illegal gains. She told the court last March that her husband was in charge of family finances, saying: “I didn’t get involved in that.”
While Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball medallist was accused of using the Noos Institute, the non-profit sports foundation he ran, as an instrument to win and channel inflated contracts from regional governmental bodies to personal accounts via tax havens. princess cristina money, spain princess cristina
In total it is alleged that Noos received over €6m (£4.4m; $6.5m) of public money, most of it from the Balearic Islands and Valencia regional governments. spain royal family trial, spain royal family corruption
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