The former king of Spain Juan Carlos assures that a former mistress, at the center of the corruption allegations that have driven into exile, did not serve as a figurehead to hide his fortune, in a letter dated 2018 and published Friday by the Spanish press.
Corinna Larsen, who was the king’s mistress from 2004 to 2009, admitted to having later received a huge donation from him – $ 65 million, according to an investigation by the Swiss newspaper La Tribune de Genève.
In an interview broadcast by the BBC on Thursday, she said the king gave her this “extraordinarily generous gift” in recognition for her friendship, for securing her future, and because he had taken a liking to her son.
This businesswoman of Danish origin who took the name of a former German husband, Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, is the subject, along with other suspects, of an investigation by the Swiss justice into the funds deposited in Switzerland by the former monarch, including $ 100 million received from Saudi Arabia in 2011.
The Swiss prosecutor suspects that the donation of 65 million to Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was in fact used to hide what was left of the 100 million saudis. If that were the case, and if the money was of illicit origin, she would have been guilty of money laundering, which she categorically denies.
Irrevocable donation
The publication of the letter, dated August 12, 2018, shortly after the Spanish press had published recordings attributed to Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein where she accuses the king of corruption, therefore defends the thesis of her innocence.
In this letter in French to his businessman in Switzerland, the lawyer Dante Canonica, Juan Carlos ensures that the donation made to Corinna in 2012 was irrevocable, and that he never sought to recover the money he had given her.
“Madame Corinna zu Sayn Wittgenstein n’a donc never ‘carried’ money on my behalf, contrary to what could be indicated by the Spanish press “, writes the former monarch.
The letter’s publication follows the BBC interview, in which Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claims that the King “confirmed that he never asked for the money back and that I never wore any money for him “.
The scandal raised by the revelations of his former mistress, which triggered judicial inquiries in Switzerland and Spain, has pushed the former ruler to leave Spain August 3 to settle in the United Arab Emirates. But he said he remained at the disposal of justice.
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