Inaki's former business investigated in a corruption case

[grevinnan]

It appears Cristina was involved in the business at the center of this crisis. Blaming her husband may not be an option.

Of course, it is very easy to speculate in hindsite but...

I am assuming Letizia has contacts with her old journalist friends. Is it possible that within the journalist community there have been questions for some time regarding the finances of Inaki and Cristina and Letizia knew about it and that in turn caused discourse between her and Cristina. They seemed to get along very well early on but around the time Inaki and Cristina purchased their home the rumors started that the relationship was not doing well. And now there are questions about how they could afford such an expensive home.

[lula]

Grevinnan, we can only speculate.

For the press always it is easy to blame the princess for everything, but the Prince also established some distances. I believe that when in 2006, according to the rumours, the King pressed Iñaki to leave the institute Noos was because rumors and news that Iñaki's business could cause problems began to arrive to the Royal Family. Maybe the Prince was also angry, or perhaps the Infanta expected that the Prince supported her husband, but he dind´t do it because he saw the seriousness of what could happen.

We do not know if the distance was real, or was precautionary because at some point a problem would appear. Or perhaps some of both. But now they can be thankful that we have not seen the Asturias and the Palma sailing yacht or skiing in Baqueira often... because it keep away the Asturias of the polemic and that's good for the monarchy.

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Duke of Marmalade

he was better at playing handball!!!

Had he been a basketball player, good enough to make the NBA, he would have returned to Spain a billionaire and wouldnt have to start questionable business acitvities in order to keep up with the inlaws' lifestyle.

Ah yes,quite right Your Grace..Hmmm,with all the greedy lumbs these days one looses track on what they once did,legally I mean..

[donnaK]

Originally Posted by grevinnan

Of course, it is very easy to speculate in hindsite but...

I am assuming Letizia has contacts with her old journalist friends. Is it possible that within the journalist community there have been questions for some time regarding the finances of Inaki and Cristina and Letizia knew about it and that in turn caused discourse between her and Cristina. They seemed to get along very well early on but around the time Inaki and Cristina purchased their home the rumors started that the relationship was not doing well. And now there are questions about how they could afford such an expensive home.

Inaki's deals with Balearic and Valencia government have been known for years (2006), Letizia didn't need her journalist friends to figure out the big problem between the amount of public money Inaki pocketed and the amount of work he had done. As lula said, when JC forced Inaki to quit his business, Cristina expected Felipe to support them since she had always been supporting his girlfriends, his marriage (although they were two completely different scenarios), but Felipe said 'NO'. I think very possible Cristina was blaming Letizia on her influence over Felipe since Cristina thought she and her brother had always been very close and supported each other. Of course, later probably some little things just angered her very easily. For example, Cristina didn't look happy on the photo session in 2006 in Mallorca, she looked very sour in 2007.
I think JC was aware how serious Inaki's business problem was, but he might not have predicted that the prosecutor and the media would go so far. Now it's truely his worst nightmare.

[grevinnan]

Originally Posted by donnaK

Inaki's deals with Balearic and Valencia government have been known for years (2006), Letizia didn't need her journalist friends to figure out the big problem between the amount of public money Inaki pocketed and the amount of work he had done. As lula said, when JC forced Inaki to quit his business, Cristina expected Felipe to support them since she had always been supporting his girlfriends, his marriage (although they were two completely different scenarios), but Felipe said 'NO'. I think very possible Cristina was blaming Letizia on her influence over Felipe since Cristina thought she and her brother had always been very close and supported each other. Of course, later probably some little things just angered her very easily. For example, Cristina didn't look happy on the photo session in 2006 in Mallorca, she looked very sour in 2007.
I think JC was aware how serious Inaki's business problem was, but he might not have predicted that the prosecutor and the media would go so far. Now it's truely his worst nightmare.

Thanks for the information. I must have been asleep at the wheel as these accusations against Inaki is completely new news for me.

[Duke of Marmalade]

I wonder why the King didnt provide his son in law with a job in the first place, after his career, and not only after the desaster loomed and he got him out to Washington.

Both Cristina & Elena got their jobs through the King's connections and I guess Inaki was bound to do something like he does today at Telefonica because of his career, advisor or representative of something. Its not that brains are needed in the first place, Inaki was popular and handsome at that time what is sufficient. I doubt Elena or Cristina "work" for their well paid jobs at Mapfre or Caixa, neither does Inaki for Telefonica.

During his marriage, Jaime got the job as advisor for Credit Suisse First Boston and worked for Winterthur/AXA, he worked in finance before but never got a degree as far as I know, his business activities looked like a similar arragement like the Infantas have.

There was no reason to let Inaki, who did get a degree in business administration, have his own business involving public money, beyond control of the King.

[lula]

Duke, I believe that it was an Iñaki's thing. Probably he wanted to do the things his way, or maybe the money that would win in jobs like that wasn´t enough for him. We must remember that also they tried to look for a place in the Olympian Spanish Committee,he was vice-president, but the thing didn´t work well either. They thought he had enough common sense and let him develop his work how he wanted, and when they saw that it was not like that, they stopped him.

They were living in Barcelona, so possibly the king and Iñaki were not meeting often, and the House of the king could not have very much control on Iñaki either. Noos' business began in 2003, just before the engagement of the prince, and probably they were more concerned about other things than watch the good son in law.

[donnaK]

The salary in a private company has a ceiling (200k-300k max), especially when others are doing you a favor. With a fixed upper middle class salary, you can't live like a millionaire, perhaps can't even afford a big house in one of the best locations in Barcelona. Jaime only got his own house after his late paternal aunt left him a fortune. Besides he was his late aunt's favorite nephew, his aunt also said 'as husband of an infanta, he needed money more than his siblings'.
Inaki had lots of deals with the private companies/foundations too, no need to put his hand in the public money which has always proven to be dangerous. The worst is that Cristina who has been raised/educated as an Infanta of Spain, didn't do anything to stop her hubby (nobody believes she didn't know). Don't know if she shared the same greed or entitlement with her hubby, or she was just so blinded by love and loyalty to her hubby.

[Duke of Marmalade]

It doesnt happen to often that Cristina makes the cover of those magazines ... now for all the wrong reason.
http://www.vanitatis.com/fotos/album...ez-minutos.jpg
http://www.vanitatis.com/fotos/album...0724semana.jpg

Pablo's sad birthday
http://www.vanitatis.com/casas-reale...angarin-16806/

Corruption scandal threatens to engulf SRF
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/ne...h-royal-family

[Kleio]

According to this, maybe next year the Infantas and Iñaki Urdangarín won't be a part of the Spanish Royal Household anymore. In my opinion, if the information that claims that Cristina was a partner in Iñaki's businesses is true, she had even to be expelled from the line of succession.

Las infantas y Urdangarin quedarán fuera de la familia real - Público.es

[Charlotte_Aster]

Some questions:
Who approves or disapproves the royal budget? which institution would exclude the infantas and thier families form the budget? And who decides who should be in the line of succession? The Constitution? The King? The king's Household?

Thank you :)

[Kleio]

Well, in the article 65 of the Spanish Constitution says that the King must receive from the Budget a global quantity for the sustenance of His Family and Royal Household and His Majesty distributes freely this amount of money. There's no transparency as in other countries such as England. We have no idea which amount get Felipe and family or which amount get the Infantas. The royal budget is approved by the Goverment but the King distributes it freely, so I guess it has to be the King himself who excludes someone from getting money from the royal budget.
Again, the Spanish Constitution determines which are the rules that establish the order in the line of succession, in the article 57, and it says that if there's a resignation or any doubt "of fact or right" in the order of succession it has to be solved by an "organic law". So I guess, again, that if someone was excluded (voluntarily or not) from the line of succession it had to be approved or corroborated by what we call an "organic law".

[Duke of Marmalade]

Spanish royal family embroiled in corruption scandal - Telegraph
Spanish duke will not be cut out of royal budget | EITB News Life
Spanish royal family hit by fraud scandal | World news | The Guardian
Corruption scandal widens around Spanish royal family - Monsters and Critics

[carlota]

new info: urdangarin and his colleage were planning to send an additional 5 million euro sum from public money to belize and luxembourg.

Urdangarin planeaba desviar cinco millones ms a Belice | España | elmundo.es

[lula]

In a telephone conversation to Efe, Urdangarín read the following statement:

"With the accumulation of information and commentary in the media relating to my professional activities, I would point out that I deeply regret that they are causing serious damage to the image of my family and the House of His Majesty the King, who have nothing to do with my private activities. "

"I also informed that I have appointed legal adviser and spokesman to Don Mario Pascual Vives, lawyer of the Bar Association of Barcelona, which will be the person authorized to speak in my name," the statement concluded.

Urdangarín desvincula a la Casa Real de sus actividades privadas

[Duke of Marmalade]

King of Spain's son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin accused of siphoning off public money | Mail Online

Its making worldwide headlines by now, hopefully the court works quickly to resolve this issue that can be potential dangerous for the whole SRF, if not handled properly.

Queen Sofia is being critizised for posing with Inaki in Washington (it is no paparazzi shot, Hola asked for permission to print and the Queen agreed), it doesnt seem a wise decision when trying to get the SRF away from the topic, what is very difficult anyway.

[Kleio]

Well, in my opinion, Queen Sofía should not being critisized for being with her daughter... As I said in a previous post, I think that if Iñaki is guilty, he will have to accept his responsability and pay for it. If Infanta Cristina knew it or participated in any way, she would have to do the same... But I also understand that Queen Sofía is just a mother who is trying to be with her sister in her difficult moments and she cannot be blamed for that...
About Iñaki's statement: well, it was the least he could do... Because he is causing a great damage to the image of the SRF, well, not the whole family, but specially his wife... In these days, in which much people questions the monarchy, he comes with this... I wonder about the traditional King's speech, on Christmas' Eve. Will he say anything or will he ignore it?

[Duke of Marmalade]

Originally Posted by Kleio

Well, in my opinion, Queen Sofía should not being critisized for being with her daughter...

I wonder about the traditional King's speech, on Christmas' Eve. Will he say anything or will he ignore it?

There was no need to pose smiling with Inaki in my opinion.
http://www.que.es/archivos/201112/ho...n-365xXx80.jpg

Re the speech, of course he will ignore it, its a private matter, the speech is about state matters and the future of Spain and its people, enough problems there and to come.

[lula]

The King can not ignore it completely, he need to make a critical reference indirectly.

The king can not talk about crisis, cuts and millions of unemployed, ask for sacrifices, work... while the whole country knows that his son in law could have embezzled million of public money.

The king will say something because otherwise his speech will be totally ridiculous and lack credibility.

[Carminha Stalker]

LULA you said it right. The son in law COULD have embezzled millions. As far as I understand law, a person is only considered guitly when convicted by a court. Maybe the Kinf will mention it, but not in that way i.e., "my son in law could have embezzled millions."