Republished March 10, 2020 - 8:28 AM
Original Publication Date March 10, 2020 - 7:06 AM
MADRID - A Spanish Parliament body that sets the agenda for lawmakers on Tuesday rejected two proposals that called for the lower chamber to investigate whether former King Juan Carlos received millions of dollars in kick-back payments from Saudi Arabia.
An ongoing investigation by Swiss prosecutors of an account allegedly operated for the Spanish monarch triggered the vote. The account allegedly received a payment of 88 million euros ($100 million) from Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah in 2008.
Lawmakers in Spain voted down a similar motion in 2018.
According to the one of the two broadly similar petitions put forward by several political parties, prosecutors are considering whether the money was a commission for the Spanish king’s help in business deals, among them a Spanish consortium's contract to build the Saudi bullet train connection to Mecca.
Swiss prosecutors are said to be investigating the later transfer of some 65 million euros from the account prior to its closure to a woman named Corinna Larsen, a Danish-German businesswoman long linked by Spanish media to the Spanish king.
Spain’s prosecutors office told The Associated Press it has asked its Swiss counterpart for details of their investigations. Spain's Royal House said it had no comment to make.
The proposals were made by the leftist United We Can group, the junior partner in the country’s Socialist-led coalition government and smaller regional parties, including two pro-Catalan independence groups.
The Socialist party, however, broke with its coalition partner and joined with the right wing opposition parties to vote down the proposals after parliament lawyers said such an investigation would be unconstitutional.
Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve first wrote about the Swiss prosecutors' inquiry last week.
The Geneva prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020