Spanish royal son-in-law to be indicted for corruption in coming weeks

Iñaki Urdangarin, the son-in-law to King Juan Carlos and target of a corruption investigation in Palma de Mallorca, is expected to be indicted in the coming weeks on charges that he profited from at least six multi-million-euro public contracts that were granted to his non-profit Nóos Institute, judicial sources tell EL PAÍS.

However, Princess Cristina, Urdangarin's wife and the king's youngest daughter, will not be charged in the so-called Palma-Arena case, the sources add.

Investigators are focusing on two contracts Urdangarin's Nóos Institute received from the Balearic Islands government, worth 2.3 million euros, and four from the Valencia regional government, worth 3.7 million euros, to organize sports and tourism events between 2004 and 2006.

Anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating claims that Nóos made profits way in excess of the real cost of the events, and have detected serious irregularities in the granting of those contracts

Diego Torres, Urdangarin's partner at the institute, was indicted six months ago by the judge in the case for his role in allegedly falsifying documents, public fraud and embezzlement, and failure to carry out his official duties.

Based on records seized by authorities, investigators theorized that the money given to the non-profit Nóos was later diverted to private businesses owned by Urdangarin and Torres. "Some of the employees would provide services to the Nóos Institute but were on the payroll on one or another company," the judge presiding over the case wrote in a ruling.

One of these workers was María Teresa Zazo Almagro who investigators say appears on the payrolls in different years as an employee of Institute Nóos, Nóos Strategy Consulting, Intuit Strategy Innovation Lab and Virtual Strategies "and whose real job, independently of which company had contracted her, was to provide services in relation to events and projects at Nóos Institute."

Those involved in the decision-making process at Nóos were Undangarin, Torres, his wife and two in-laws, who ran the legal and financial departments at the institute, judicial authorities believe.

Sources say that it is "inevitable" that Undangarin will be indicted within 45 days when the review of all the evidence is completed. Even though Princess Cristina and her secretary, Carlos García Revenga, appear as members of the Nóos board of directors up until 2006, investigators say that based on all the records they studied the two were "not involved in the financial-making decisions."

Ignasi de Juan Creix Bretón, who up until 2006 performed work for Nóos, did not implicate the princess when he testified before authorities. Still, Torres told investigators that the real estate firm Aizoon owned by the princess and Urdangarin received diverted money.