A secret document dating from March 2011 directly implicates Spain's king emeritus Juan Carlos I in the financial structures which allowed him to hide about 65 million euros which he had allegedly received from Saudi Arabia.
Spanish digital newspaper El Confidencial has had access to this document in which the then-king's signature can be seen on the statutes of the Panamanian entity, the Lucum Foundation, which was used to control these huge sums. The document has Juan Carlos I's signature on its three pages and refers to him as the "first beneficiary of the funds."
The son of the emeritus king, that is, current Spanish king Felipe VI, also appears as an involved party, referred to in the statutes document as the "second beneficiary" of the fortune.
Lucum Foundation
The document sighted by the Spanish newspaper explains that the Lucum Foundation was created to act as a proxy for a Switzerland-based account in the Mirabaud bank, numbered 505523. A few weeks after the creation of Lucum, this bank account was used to deposit "a donation of 64,884,405 euros made by the King of Saudi Arabia in favour of the King of Spain."
A lawyer specialising in fund management for large fortunes, Dante Canonica, was the sole person responsible for the administration of the funds and the company until 2011. However, in March of that year a formal document recorded who the true beneficiaries of the company were.
The real beneficiary
El Confidencial explains that the new statutes of March 2011 admitted that the real owner of the foundation and the 65 million euros deposited in Geneva was "His Majesty Juan Carlos I, King of Spain (Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón), born January 5th, 1938 in Rome, Italy".
This document accredits Juan Carlos, at that time Spanish head of state, with the capacity to "freely dispose of the assets of the foundation without any limitation, throughout his life."
The role of Felipe VI
The Lucum Foundation document also reveals that if Juan Carlos were to die, the funds would then be controlled by the "second beneficiary". The second beneficiary, according to the secret document, is "HRH Prince Felipe de Borbón y Grecia, Prince of Asturias, born on January 30th, 1968 in Madrid."
"From the death of the first beneficiary onwards, the second beneficiary will have the right to dispose of all the assets of the foundation, without any limitation," states the document.
Conditions for accessing the funds
However, if the king emeritus were to die and Felipe VI wanted access to the funds in the foundation, Spain's current monarch would have to meet a number of conditions such as “ensuring that the money is used for the maintenance of all members of the Spanish Royal Family, in particular of HM Queen Sofia of Spain, of HRH Infanta Elena of Borbón y Grecia, Duchess of Lugo, and of her children born or yet to be born, of Infanta Cristina of Borbón y Grecia, Duchess of Palma, and of their children born or yet to be born."
That is, the entire royal family and the current and future children of Felipe's sisters all came to be listed as beneficiaries of the Swiss bank account.