Ex-Nóos Institute partner says Royal Household supervised its activities

Iñaki Urdangarin’s former business partner testified on Tuesday that he believed that the business deals at the Nóos Institute were legitimate because they were not only overseen by Spain’s Royal Household but also monitored by Finance Ministry tax officials.

Diego Torres on Tuesday took the stand in the high-profile embezzlement and public fraud case involving €6.2 million that he and Urdangarin, who is the brother-in-law of King Felipe, allegedly diverted from the non-profit institute to their own personal businesses.

Sixteen defendants are on trial, including Urdangarin’s wife, the Infanta Cristina, who is facing lesser tax fraud charges over allegations she used a company credit card belonging to one of the businesses owned by herself and her husband to make personal purchases and claim them as business deductions in her tax filings.

Prosecutors believed that Urdangarin used his royal connections to seal deals with the Balearic Islands and Valencia regional governments to receive public money in exchange for helping them organize sporting and tourist events through the non-profit Nóos Institute.

When a prosecutor in a Palma de Mallorca courtroom asked him to explain the offshore accounts he held in Luxembourg, Torres immediately described how he believed that all the business conducted at the Nóos Institute was legal because of the “two levels of supervision” the organization had.

Torres believed that all the business conducted was legal because of the “two levels of supervision” the organization had

“With those two levels [the monarchy and Finance Ministry], I would never have been able to think that what was being done wasn’t right,” he said.

Torres described in public for the first time the alleged meetings held between former King Juan Carlos’s legal advisor, José Manuel Romero, the Count of Fontao, and ex-Nóos accountant Marco Antonio Tejeiro.

“They would meet regularly and go over the books,” he said, adding that Tejeiro would also meet with Finance Ministry officials.

Torres also denied that Princess Cristina was used as “a tax shield.”

Torres had dropped a bombshell in 2012 when in court filings he included emails from Urdangarin suggesting that King Juan Carlos had helped his son-in-law to try to get a contract for the America’s Cup tournament – a deal that ultimately fell through. Other emails suggested that Infanta Cristina had been aware of her husband’s business dealings since at least 2003, when Nóos was just getting started,

The defendant alluded to King Juan Carlos’ close friend Corinna zu-Sayn Wittgenstein, who wanted to help from London

Torres, a former business lecturer, also alluded to King Juan Carlos’s close friend Corinna zu-Sayn Wittgenstein, who wanted to help the non-profit institute from London.

“Corinna told us that for her to get paid in London it was necessary to create a special financial structure so that nobody in Spain would find out where the money was coming from, copying in the king and the head of the Royal Household. And we decided at Nóos: not on your life,” Torres said.

As for his offshore accounts, Torres said that they held savings from what he had earned as an international financial consultant in Andorra. He had later moved them to Luxembourg because he thought “they would be safer” there.

 English version by Martin Delfín.