Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Switzerland Drops Money Laundering Case Involving Spain's Former King

Switzerland Drops Money Laundering Case Involving Spain's Former King

A Swiss private bank involved in the three-year criminal probe was convicted of a reporting failure and fined.

Geneva's chief prosecutor said on Monday he had closed a criminal investigation into allegations Spain's former king Juan Carlos laundered "illegal commission" payments from Saudi Arabia, due to insufficient evidence.

A Swiss private bank involved in the three-year criminal probe was convicted of a reporting failure and fined.

Prosecutor Yves Bertossa said he had established that Saudi Arabia had paid $100 million in August 2008 into an account opened a month before at Mirabaud private bank in the name of a Panamanian foundation whose beneficial owner was Juan Carlos.

But Bertossa said in a statement that he had been unable to prove a sufficient link with a contract awarded three years later to Spanish companies for a high-speed rail connection in Saudi Arabia.

The Spanish royal household declined to comment on the development. Juan Carlos, who is living in exile in the United Arab Emirates, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Through his lawyer, Juan Carlos has previously declined to comment on the various allegations of wrongdoing against him. The former king's Geneva asset manager was quoted in court documents as testifying that a Saudi ambassador had described the funds as a "pure gift".

Bertossa said he had opened the criminal investigation in 2018, following news reports that the former king, who abdicated in 2014, may have received "illegal commissions" linked to the contracts and stashed the funds in Swiss accounts.

"The investigation has established that Juan Carlos I did, in fact, receive $100 million on the Lucum foundation account at Mirabaud & Cie SA in Geneva, from the Saudi finance ministry on Aug. 8, 2008," Bertossa said.

The use of a foundation and offshore accounts by various protagonists in the case had showed a "willingness to dissimulate", but he had been unable to sufficiently prove the relation between the Saudi payment and the contract for the rail link between Medina and Mecca, he said.

CHARGES DISMISSED


Additional payments of nearly $9 million from Kuwait and Bahrain were received on accounts held by Juan Carlos and his German-born former lover, Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, Bertossa said. She received the balance of 65 million euros ($73.3 million) from the Mirabaud account, which was closed in June 2012 and the funds transferred to her account in Bahamas, the prosecutor added.

Charges handed down against four accused, whom court documents show included the asset manager, a lawyer and a banker, as well as Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, for alleged "aggravated money-laundering" were dismissed, Bertossa said. Juan Carlos was not among the five indicted suspects, which also included the bank ,charged with failure to report an account's unusual activity under the money-laundering law.

"Today I have finally been cleared of wrongdoing of any kind in the three-year investigation conducted by the Swiss prosecutor," Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"My innocence was evident at the outset and this episode has served to harm me further as part of the ongoing abuse campaign against me by certain Spanish interests."

"The principal wrongdoers, meanwhile, have not been investigated and have been given time to conceal their activities. They remain unaccountable," she said.

Mirabaud bank was fined 50,000 Swiss francs ($54,100) for having failed to report Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's account and its unusual activity of funds received from the foundation owned by the former king, the prosecutor's statement said.

The bank said in a statement it welcomed the closure of the criminal proceedings. It said its alleged violation of a duty to report did not concern the account linked to the former Spanish king and it had developed and strengthened its internal procedures since.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×