The threat of the Spanish monarchy: the ex-king and his mistress accused of money laundering
'26.08.2020'
Source: with the BBC
The elderly culprit of the scandal over the course of several years managed to turn from a respected person who was appreciated for building democracy in Spain, into a spender involved in corruption and a dirty story about cheating on his wife, writes with the BBC.
The Spanish nation's love for its monarch began to wane back in 2012, after his notorious elephant hunt in Botswana. Then on safari with him was his girlfriend Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Corinna was born in Denmark and raised in Germany. She now has her own consulting business and works as a business consultant.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, she spoke about the king's multimillion-dollar gift, about the persecution she, according to her, was subjected to by the Spanish special services, and about that very elephant.
Actually, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein spoke about the elephant reluctantly.
Juan Carlos shot him on April 11, 2012. The media reported that the animal was 50 years old, weighed five tons and had tusks more than a meter long.
Sayn-Wittgenstein said she could not confirm this information.
“I have no idea,” she replied.
Yes, she was on safari with the king, but she was quite far away when the shot was fired.
“I saw the aftermath [of the elephant carcass], as everyone went to look, but left after a couple of minutes. I myself am a hunter, but I have never killed an elephant in my life and I will not do it. For me, that experience was quite painful, ”she says.
The safari in Botswana was a gift from the king to his son Sain-Wittgenstein for his 10th birthday.
The king became friends with the children of his mistress in 2004-2009, when their relationship continued, which the Spanish public did not know then. Juan Carlos has been officially married to Queen Sofia since 1962.
In early August of this year, Juan Carlos, who abdicated the throne in 2014 in favor of his son Felipe, left the country amid accusations of financial untidiness. It later became known that he had moved to Abu Dhabi.
“I wasn't too keen on this journey,” said Sayn-Wittgenstein. “I saw that the king would like to restore relations, and did not want to give him false hope. Actually, I had bad premonitions. ”
As it turned out, not in vain. At sunset on April 13, two days after the elephant was shot, the king fell in his luxurious tent and broke his hip.
After his return to Madrid, the media pounced on the story like a predatory lion on a fragile gazelle.
The elephant hunt was brought up again when a corruption investigation soon began involving King Iñaka Urdangarin’s son-in-law, who is still in prison.
It was a difficult time for Spain. The unemployment rate reached 23%.
After the operation, Juan Carlos first appeared before the press in the hospital, leaning on a cane. He was asked about his health.
“I'm sorry,” he replied. - I made a mistake. This will not happen again. ”
Until then, the king was considered above all criticism because of the positive role he played in the difficult bloody Spanish history.
As head of state in 1975 after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, he successfully made the transition to democracy and thwarted an attempted military coup in 1981.
But a safari in Botswana has done irreparable damage to the reputation of the once very popular monarch.
“The crisis has broken out because several unfavorable factors have coincided at once,” says Jose Antonio Zarsalejos, former editor of the right-wing monarchist newspaper ABC.
“First, the king was convicted of adultery. Secondly, in the midst of the economic crisis, he went on a very expensive tour, which nobody knows who paid for. Thirdly, I went to a country with which Spain did not have diplomatic relations, therefore, for several days I was not in touch with the government. All together left a very unpleasant aftertaste, ”the journalist believes.
The King and Zu Sain-Wittgenstein met in February 2004 - also on the hunt.
“He had a problem with his gun. And I am good at this, and managed to help him. I thought he was quite surprised, ”she says.
The relationship developed slowly.
“For several months we spoke only by phone. The first date took place in early summer. We always laughed a lot. We found many common interests: politics, history, delicious food, wines, ”says the woman.
“I was living in London at the time and was just starting my consulting business. And one raised two children. We met in Madrid in a small house on the territory of some large property and traveled together ”.
“The first year was especially difficult: I am busy, he has a busy schedule. But he called me ten times a day. I want to say that we had a very strong and deep relationship that meant a lot to us. ”
At one point, Corinna zu Sain-Wittgenstein asked how this all relates to Juan Carlos' marriage.
“He replied that he and the queen represent the state, but each of them has long lived their own lives. And he also said that he had recently come out of a relationship that lasted almost 20 years with a woman who held an important place in his heart. "
The king and Zu Sain-Wittgenstein became very close. She met his children and friends.
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In 2009, the king unexpectedly visited his girlfriend's father.
“My father called me and said that the king had come to see him. He told his father that he loved me very much and intended to marry me. He added that he couldn't do it immediately, but he wants my father to know how serious he is about me. ”
Shortly before this, according to zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the king actually proposed to her.
“Of course, such a moment is always exciting. I was deeply in love with him. At the same time, I understood - after all, I am, after all, a political scientist - it will all be very difficult and can destabilize the monarchy. "
“So I never pushed him, I treated his words as a demonstration of the seriousness of our relationship.”
The novel ended the same year.
“My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein continues. - He had several months to live, and I decided to spend them with him, we were very close. To my great shock, right after the funeral, the king confessed to me that he had been in a relationship with another woman for three years. ”
“It just killed me. I never expected this. I really needed support after my father's death, and this news caused me a real shock. I could not even think of something like this after the conversations about marriage that he had with me and with my father. For several months I was just sick, ”the woman recalls.
According to zu Sain-Wittgenstein, she had no doubt that except for her and, of course, the queen, Juan Carlos had no one else.
“I immediately and decisively made it clear that I would not tolerate competition with other women. It seemed to me that he regretted what had happened, but for me it was all over. "
However, they remained on friendly terms - in part because of Juan Carlos' friendship with Corinna's children.
In late 2009, he called and asked for a meeting.
“He said he had bad news. A tumor was found in his lung, and he is convinced that it is malignant. He was scared. The family doesn't know anything yet, he added.
“I decided that I could not leave him alone at such a moment, and I would be a faithful friend to him,” said Corinna.
In 2010, when he went to the clinic, Juan Carlos asked his girlfriend to stay with him.
“I spent the night before the operation on the couch next to his bed because he was very worried. But the biopsy showed that the tumor was benign, ”she recalls.
Then the royal relatives arrived.
“Some not very polite court clerk asked me to leave, rather unceremoniously, says zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. “When the queen realized how serious everything was with us, the situation became very tense.”
Even after that, the relationship continued, albeit now purely friendly.
“He was recovering very slowly after surgery, so I flew to Madrid from time to time to see how he was doing,” says zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
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Back in 2012, Botswana, the shot and the elephant and the king's broken thigh.
“Until now, no one knows that it was I who actually organized his return to his homeland. There was no plan for an emergency, ”says zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
“We flew in on a private plane. I was worried that the king was not in his best shape — two doctors had arrived with him. So I was prudent and delayed the plane. A great responsibility fell on me. He needed an operation, and I was very worried if I would take him home alive. "
The safari story instantly became a media sensation. Tsu Sayn-Wittgenstein thinks someone planned this.
“I think the leaks would start regardless of the accident. The scandals affecting the king's daughter and son-in-law began in late 2011 and set in motion various factions and the establishment and the royal family. There were forces in the palace to bring the abdication of Juan Carlos closer, ”she says.
The plane arrived in Madrid from Botswana late in the evening. The king was immediately taken to the clinic.
“From that moment on, I always felt that I was being closely watched,” says zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
"A campaign has begun to make me either Wallis Simpson or Lady Macbeth - a malicious person who lured a beautiful man out of nowhere and why in the midst of the economic crisis."
Tsu Sayn-Wittgenstein claims that after a trip to Africa, she became the object of unwanted attention from the Spanish National Intelligence (CNI). The first target was allegedly her apartment in Monaco.
“Someone visited my apartment while I was traveling. The security company said that some of my friends from Spain got in touch with them. I wrote to the king and asked: “Who were these people? What is going on?". He replied that they had to protect me from the paparazzi. "
“If he was concerned about my safety, why didn't he call his friend, Prince Albert of Monaco (who is also my old friend), and said:“ We have some concerns here - can we look after Corinna’s apartment? ”
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According to zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the uninvited guests from Spain were looking for some documents in her apartment, although she cannot say which ones, and all this lasted for several weeks.
During a business trip to Brazil, according to zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, she was followed. A book about the death of Princess Diana was planted in her other apartment in Switzerland.
She also received an anonymous letter: “There are many tunnels between Monaco and Nice” - and Princess Diana, as you know, died in the tunnel.
Finally, according to zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, at the end of 2012, the chief of Spanish intelligence, Felix Sans Roldan, visited her in London.
“He said that the king had sent him, and I should not tell the press anything, otherwise no one will vouch for my health and the health of my children,” the woman says.
Felix Sans Roldan no longer works in intelligence. The BBC tried to contact him through his former colleagues and through the Spanish energy company Iberdrola, where he sits on the supervisory board, but received no response to their inquiries.
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It is known that he was very close to Juan Carlos.
“When Felix Sans was appointed director of CNI, they became very good friends - he fully took over the protection of the king,” says Fernando Rueda, an expert on Spanish intelligence at the University of Villanueva.
“He was not the first head of CNI to tell the king that a relationship with Corinna could have very bad consequences and that Corinna should not be trusted,” he added.
“No one can know that,” Rueda said when asked for comment on zu Sain-Wittgenstein’s allegations of intimidation. “But I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be true. If the intelligence sees a threat to the security of the state, it, of course, uses all the mechanisms to force the person to return the documents. "
In his homeland, Juan Carlos never got rid of the “elephant curse”. In 2014, he abdicated in favor of a son who became King Philip VI.
As an “honorary king,” the ex-monarch continued to fulfill numerous official duties and travel, especially to the Middle East.
It was his extensive connections in the region that aroused the close attention of prosecutors.
It began with the revelations of a former Spanish police officer who recorded all his conversations with the rich and famous, including Zu Sain-Wittgenstein. In 2018, these entries were published.
One of them was about the honorary king, and a woman's voice said: “Where does he get the money? He gets on a plane, flies to Arab countries and returns with a suitcase of cash - something like five million. He has a machine for counting banknotes - I saw it with my own eyes.
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Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein never confirmed that it was her voice. But the sensational disclosures from these audio recordings initiated investigations - first in Switzerland, then in Spain.
At the center of the proceedings is the $ 100 million deposited in 2008 by the late King of Saudi Arabia into a Swiss account linked to an offshore fund in Panama. The beneficiary of the foundation was King Juan Carlos.
A Swiss prosecutor is investigating three people associated with the former king. He is trying to figure out if there is any connection between this amount and the contract for the construction of a high-speed railway in Saudi Arabia, obtained three years later by a Spanish consortium.
In Spain, the Supreme Court is investigating Juan Carlos himself. True, it can only affect events that took place after 2014, when he lost royal immunity.
In early August, the ex-monarch made a sensational announcement that he was leaving Spain. After two weeks of guesswork about his whereabouts, the court announced that he had settled in the United Arab Emirates.
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But what does Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein have to do with it?
She is one of the very trio in respect of which the Swiss prosecutors are investigating. Because in 2012, shortly after a trip to Botswana, King Juan Carlos transferred to her about 65 million euros - almost all that remained of the “Saudi” 100 million dollars.
“I was really surprised because this is definitely an extremely generous gift,” she says now. “But, starting in 2011, he began to talk often about death, will, and that he would like to fulfill his last will during his lifetime”.
“He was worried that the family would not take into account his will, he said that he wanted to take care of me, but we did not discuss specific amounts.”
According to zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the transfer came after unknown persons entered her apartment in Monaco and spoke with the head of CNI in London.
She flew to Madrid to thank the king, and he allegedly said that he felt guilty before her.
“I think he was shocked when he realized the pressure he was under and the damage to his reputation.”
Tsu Sayn-Wittgenstein told the Swiss prosecutor that the king had given her a gift because he loved her.
“I think it was a recognition of how much I meant to him, and how much my son meant to him. It was a gratitude for my concern in the most difficult moments of his life. "
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She insists that the king did not try to hide or launder the money by handing it over to her. But he says that in 2014 he allegedly demanded them back.
“He desperately tried to get me back, and realizing that this would not happen, he became completely uncontrollable. I think he said it in anger. He later confirmed that he had never actually demanded this money back, and I had not disposed of it on his behalf. ”
In Spain, the former king's multimillion-dollar gift to his mistress has sparked outrage - especially as the coronavirus pandemic has hit Spain harder than most European countries.
Yvette Torrent, a young lawyer from Barcelona, posted an online petition demanding that the money be donated to the Spanish healthcare system, which she believes would be “the fairest thing to do”. It was signed by almost 250 thousand people.
What does Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein say to this?
“I would submit this case to the Swiss prosecutor's office. I don’t think pushing me is the right way. I am extremely surprised that they reduce the 40 years of the family business [of the Spanish monarchy] to one person. And this person is me ... There will be hundreds of other accounts in other jurisdictions. ”
Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein attributes the heightened attention to her and the money she received from Juan Carlos to the ongoing malevolent intrigues of the Spanish intelligence service CNI.
She gave the BBC a list of related incidents that have occurred in the United Kingdom over the past few years.
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“The persecution does not end, it only intensifies,” she said. “We’ll talk about all this at a trial in Britain. All facts of pressure on me will appear in the case. Juan Carlos will be the defendant, but probably not the only one. ”
Fernando Rueda, an expert on the Spanish intelligence services, questions zu Mein-Wittgenstein's claims.
“It makes no sense for the Spanish secret service to intimidate it in Britain, since everything has already been made public. She's just trying to defend herself by posing as the victim, ”he says.
“Corinna's problem is that she herself faces a criminal charge. She must explain and justify the fact that she owns 60 million euros. Juan Carlos, according to Spanish law, cannot be brought to trial, but she can be, ”says the expert.
Despite the legal crush she has found herself in, Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein says she does not regret her past relationship with the retired king.
“I have no regrets about my affair with Juan Carlos. I had sincere feelings for him. I'm sorry it took this turn. ”
King Philip VI of Spain has already announced the renunciation of the "shameful" inheritance of his 82-year-old father, Juan Carlos I.
