Swiss prosecutors ‘probe King Juan Carlos’s ex-lover’s British mansion’
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Swiss prosecutors are investigating the purchase of a British mansion by the mistress of Spain’s former King Juan Carlos I, Spanish media says.
Corinna Larsen bought the Chyknell Hall Estate in Shropshire in 2015 – three years after receiving €65million (£58million) from the then-monarch.
Larsen has told prosecutors in Geneva she paid £6million for the mansion and spent a similar amount renovating it, according to testimony seen by El Pais.
The chief prosecutor in Geneva is said to be probing the purchase of Chyknell Hall because it followed the gift from Juan Carlos and because of the ‘opaque structure’ which she allegedly set up to buy it.
Swiss prosecutors suspect the gift served to hide a portion of a $100million (£76million) payment which Juan Carlos received from Saudi Arabia in 2008.
Larsen denies claims of money laundering, while the former King is not under formal investigation – but the questions about his finances have led him to leave Spain for Abu Dhabi.
The Chyknell Hall Estate in Shropshire (pictured) was sold to the ex-lover of Spain’s former King Juan Carlos I in 2015 – a purchase now reportedly being investigated in Switzerland
Spanish King Juan Carlos (pictured left) gave a €65million gift to Corinna Larsen (right) which she says was a gift of appreciation
Larsen, a Danish-born business consultant also known as Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, has been under investigation for suspected money laundering since 2018.
She has told Swiss prosecutors she bought the property through a trust fund registered in Panama that listed her son, who was 13 at the time, as its beneficiary.
The 200-acre estate in Shropshire includes a mansion with 11 bedrooms, a library, a swimming pool and cricket field.
Larsen last week said Juan Carlos had earlier made the ‘enormously generous gift’ out of ‘gratitude for looking after him’ and because he valued her son.
Speaking to BBC News, Larsen – who was the king’s lover from 2004 to 2009 – said that Juan Carlos had asked for the money back in a ‘tantrum’ in 2014.
‘At some point he realised I wasn’t going to return, and he went completely ballistic. He asked for everything back. I think it was just a tantrum he threw,’ she said.
The Chyknell Hall Estate is set across 200 acres near Bridgnorth in Shropshire
The chief prosecutor in Geneva is said to be probing the purchase of Chyknell Hall
However, she said Juan Carlos had told Swiss investigators that ‘he never actually asked for the money back’.
Larsen is one of three people under investigation over the $100million which Juan Carlos received from late Saudi king Abdullah in a Swiss bank account in 2008.
Both Larsen and Juan Carlos have denied that she held money in the former King’s name.
In a letter dated August 2018 which Juan Carlos sent to his Swiss lawyer Dante Canonica, he said the donation made to Larsen in 2012 ‘was irrevocable’.
‘I never received any amount back from her. I have never asked for it,’ Juan Carlos wrote in French, in the letter published by Spanish media last week.
Prosecutors are now said to investigating the purchase of Chyknell Hall (interior pictured)
The estate in Shropshire set across 200 acres features an outdoor swimming pool
‘Madame Corinna zu Sayn Wittgenstein has therefore never held money on my behalf, contrary to what may have been suggested in the Spanish media.’
Juan Carlos has been married to his wife Sofia since 1962 and reports of his relationship with Larsen generated a wave of sympathy for the former queen.
The queen’s official biographer described Juan Carlos as liking all women except the one he chose as a wife.
Despite his self-imposed exile Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014, has said he remains available to prosecutors.
After leaving the throne, he stepped back from public life but controversy has continued to swirl around him.
The 11-bedroom Chyknell Hall was built in 1814 and has only changed hands twice since
The Chyknell Hall Estate comes complete with a Grade II-listed house and five cottages
In June, Spain’s supreme court opened a a preliminary investigation into his involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia.
Juan Carlos had full judicial immunity while on the throne, but could be prosecuted for any wrongdoing committed since he abdicated.
Justice minister Juan Carlos Campo said the former king would return to Spain to respond to judges if required.
‘I’m convinced that when justice calls him, he will attend,’ Campo said.
Juan Carlos’s whereabouts were the subject of mystery earlier this month until the royal palace confirmed he had been in the United Arab Emirates since August 3.
In a letter to his son Felipe, he said he wanted the current King to reign untroubled ‘amid the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating’.
The Regency home has been refurbished to a high standard, but has kept original features
Spanish King Juan Carlos and Danish-born business consultant Corinna Larsen, also known as Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein at a dinner in Stuttgart in 2006
‘Guided by my desire to do what is best to serve the Spanish people, its institutions and you as king, I am informing you of my … decision to leave Spain at this time.’
King Felipe thanked Juan Carlos for his decision, pointing to ‘the historic importance that his father’s reign represents’ for democracy in Spain.
Juan Carlos was crowned in 1975 after being groomed as the successor of Spain’s long-serving dictator Francisco Franco.
To the dismay of Franco loyalists, the King quickly implemented reforms that led to democratic elections in 1977.
After an attempted military coup in 1981, Juan Carlos gave a television broadcast in support of the government and Spain’s young democracy.
However, his popularity waned amid a tax fraud case involving members of the royal family and an ill-judged hunting trip to Botswana.
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