Swiss drop case linked to Saudi funds for ex-Spanish king

GENEVA — Geneva prosecutors person fined a Swiss slope for failing to alert wealth laundering authorities astir much than $100 cardinal from Saudi Arabia that went to erstwhile Spanish King Juan Carlos and his ex-lover, but dropped imaginable charges against his associates successful the case.

The Geneva prosecutor’s bureau partially dropped an probe opened 3 years agone of 5 radical for alleged wealth laundering, portion deciding that Mirabaud slope had failed to decently pass with the Swiss wealth laundering office.

The Swiss probe was prompted aft reports successful Spanish media astir imaginable amerciable payouts benefiting the king successful the awarding of nationalist contracts to Spanish companies — funds that could person been hidden successful Swiss banks. Some of those payouts were suspected to beryllium linked to commissions connected a high-speed obstruction task from Medina to Mecca successful Saudi Arabia.

Juan Carlos himself was not among the 5 being investigated successful this peculiar probe.

Investigators did find that Juan Carlos received connected Aug. 1, 2008 — earlier helium stepped down arsenic king — done a instauration known arsenic Lucum, the sum of $100 cardinal from the Saudi concern ministry, the prosecutor’s bureau said. It besides turned up millions much received by the king oregon his erstwhile person Corinna Larsen, a Danish-German businesswoman.

The prosecutor’s bureau said usage of a instauration to instrumentality successful the funds “demonstrated a desire” to fell funds, but “the probe could nevertheless not found sufficiently immoderate nexus betwixt the magnitude received from Saudi Arabia and the decision of contracts for the operation of the high-speed train.”

It ordered Mirabaud to wage a good positive ineligible fees totaling 200,000 Swiss francs (about $215,000) for its nonaccomplishment to alert the money-laundering bureau astir Larsen’s idiosyncratic account.