As the investigation progresses it seems more and more likely that the royal son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin is to be formally accused in the ‘Palma Arena’ case, involving the alleged embezzlement of public funds, tax evasion and money laundering.

After weeks of uncomfortable silence last week the Royal Household has made its move, announcing on Monday 12th that the Duke of Palma would no longer represent the Royal Family and would not participate in any more official acts. This does not mean, however, that Urdangarin, as the husband of the Infanta Cristina, will stop belonging to the Royal Family, and therefore he could soon become the first royal to be formally accused of a crime. It was suggested last week that the King was considering removing the Infantas and their spouses from the official Royal Family nucleus, although it was later pointed out that this would involve a legal reform. A royal decree in 1981 declared that all the King’s descendants and their consorts were members of the Royal Family.

On Monday the Head of the King’s Household, Rafael Spottorno, announced that King Juan Carlos had described Urdangarin’s behaviour as hardly exemplary and said that the decision to wipe the Duke from the royal agenda had been taken by mutual agreement between the Zarzuela palace and the King’s son-in-law.

While not defending Urdangarin, Spottorno criticised the media for putting him on “public trial” before he had even been officially accused. He stressed that only the courts of justice could decide whether the business affairs of the Duke of Palma involved any illegal activity and encouraged the judicial institutions “to complete their work as soon as possible”.

Noós Institute

Meanwhile details continue to emerge from the ongoing investigation into the dealings of Urdangarin’s non-profit foundation ‘Nóos Institute’.

The figures thrown up by the investigation get fatter and fatter. In barely a decade Urdangarin has amassed a fortune of more than eleven million euros, apparently through a complicated web of private companies. The investigation began with two sports and tourism forums organised in Palma for which the Nóos Institute received more than 2.5 million euros from the Balearic Government to organise. This led to further events, the Valencia Summits in 2004, 2005 and 2006, for which the Valencia regional authority paid Nóos 3.1 million euros.

Detectives are as yet to estimate the total amount of funds, from public and private organisations, that the web of firms, managed by Urdangarín and his partner Diego Torres allegedly channelled abroad. So far they believe they can certify that at least 650,000 euros went to Belize.

It was revealed last week that in 2006 Urdangarin and Torres used the services of Ramón Cerdá Sanjuán, who advertises online the sale of dormant companies that can be made available in 24 hours, allegedly in order to send money out of the country. Cerdá’s services were also used by those accused in the Gürtel corruption and embezzlement case affecting the Valencia government.

The company purchased urgently from Cerdá in 2006 was put in the name of Urdangarin’s right hand man, Mario Sorribas, and its name was changed to ‘De Goes Center For Stakeholder Management SL’. At the same time Nóos bought a company in Belize that was part owned by the British consultancy ‘De Goes Center for Stakeholder Management Ltd’, to avoid suspicions as funds were transferred between companies of the same name.

Rush to save mansion

Back in August this year Iñaki Urdangarin apparently made a hurried move to keep the family mansion, valued at more than six million euros, out of the investigation. It appears that after being tipped off that his former partner Diego Torres, who has already been formally accused in the ‘Palma Arena’ case, had revealed his involvement during a police interrogation, Urdangarín moved the business address of his real estate firm Aizoon from the family mansion in Barcelona to an apartment where some of the other firms involved in the investigation are based. This, assume the investigators, had the double aim of preventing the family home, which is also in the name of the Infanta Cristina, from being searched, and to reduce the risk of the property being among assets frozen by the courts.

In 2009 Urdangarin had put his right hand man, Mario Sorribas, in charge of the firm Aizoon when he moved to Washington.