Corinna Larsen and businessman Allen Sanginés-Krause co-owned a company in Seychelles
Corinna Larsen, the German businesswoman who was once
involved in a romantic relationship with Spain’s emeritus king Juan Carlos I,
once co-owned a company in a tax haven with Mexican entrepreneur Allen
Sanginés-Krause. The latter is being investigated by the Spanish Supreme Court
prosecutor for making payments to Juan Carlos, which were not declared to the
Spanish Tax Agency.
The evidence that reveals this previously unknown connection
between Larsen and Sanginés-Krause is among the Pandora Papers, a massive leak
of 11.9 documents from 14 offshore service providers. The investigation has
been coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ), and has counted on the participation of EL PAÍS and television network
La Sexta in Spain. The leak covers five decades of documentation, and allows
for the reconstruction of operations carried out by politicians,
multimillionaires, criminals and elite sports figures in countries and
territories that are usually considered to be tax havens due to their
confidential approach to sharing fiscal information and the low tax rates
offered to foreign capital.
The company in question was named Fortuna Ventures Ltd., and
was registered in Seychelles on October 1, 2009. Larsen used her company
Apollonio Holdings to create the firm, while Sanginés-Krause used Montpascal
Holdings, a company that he was linked to. Documents held by EL PAÍS show that
these two firms are shareholders of Fortuna Ventures Ltd., and that Larsen was
the director. Neither of the two has responded to requests sent by the
consortium about the revelations.
Until yesterday, Seychelles was considered one of the most
commonly used tax havens by fraudsters all over the planet. But the European
Union on Tuesday took it off its blacklist. Foreign companies registered in the
archipelago, which is located in the Indian Ocean, are exempt from paying taxes
nor do they need to provide a minimal capital amount to register a company.
There is also no requirement to publicly register the name of company
directors, according to a law on international commerce that has been in place
since 1994.
For many years, Larsen has been working as a consultant and
a fixer in international businesses via another of her companies, Apollonia
Associates, which is based in the microstate of Monaco in the French Riviera. A
Swiss prosecutor, Yves Bertossa, is investigating Larsen for an alleged money
laundering offense for having received €64.8 million in a bank account she held
in the Bahamas, and that was transferred from a Swiss account held by Juan
Carlos I.
Speaking to the prosecutor in 2018, and as revealed by EL
PAÍS, she cited the name of Apollonia Associates. She also confirmed that in
2004 she began her consultancy work for Apollonia Associates with jobs for
Richemond and Volkswagen “that had nothing to do with Juan Carlos I.”
However, her firm Apollonia Holdings GMBH was not known
about until now. The company was created by the Panamanian law firm Alemán,
Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal), which created a steady stream of opaque
structures and shell companies in order to hide fortunes from all around the
world, according to the Pandora Papers investigation.
On November 19, 2010, Larsen was named as director and
secretary of Apollonia Holdings GMBH, a shell company, replacing Andrés
Maximino Sánchez.
On June 2, 2010, Apollonia Holdings GMBH issued a €30,000
invoice for Montpascal Advisory Services, Sanginés’s company, without stating
what it was for. The invoice was sent to the address for Montpascal Advisory
Services, in Killua Castle, an imposing castle near Clonmellon in Ireland. This
property has been visited by the emeritus king.
The public prosecutor at Spain’s Supreme Court has opened
three lines of investigation against the emeritus king. One of these is based
on a report from Spain’s financial intelligence unit, Sepblac, that warned that
Mexican businessman Allen Sanginés-Krause made three bank transfers between
2017 and 2018 to Nicolás Murga Mendoza, a former colonel in the air force and
an assistant to Juan Carlos I. Part of these payments were transferred to
accounts held by members of the Spanish royal family and other people within
their circle, who accessed these amounts via credit cards.
The public prosecutor has taken a statement from the
61-year-old Mexican businessman, as well as from Murga Mendoza. Sanginés
claimed that they were “donations” made to the emeritus king, given their
friendship.
Juan Carlos I made a voluntary regularization with the
Spanish Tax Agency of €678,393 given that the money received from
Sanginés-Krause, had not been declared. It emerged on Wednesday that the public
prosecutor is planning on shelving all three cases against the emeritus king
that were being investigated.
During the years that there was a relationship between
Larsen and the then-king, both would regularly spend time with Sanginés-Krause,
at parties and other private celebrations, but until now the business links
between him and the German consultant were not public knowledge.
Major purchases
Sanginés-Krause, the founder of the investment group BK
Partners and a former senior executive at the US bank Goldman Sachs, is little
known in his home country of Mexico, despite having made major purchases in the
real estate sector such as the Four Seasons hotel. He acquired the luxury hotel
complex Mayakoba, in Cancun, and also the Villa Magna hotel in Madrid, where he
usually stays when visiting the Spanish capital.
The Pandora Papers have also revealed that in 2007 Larsen
was planning for the managers in New Zealand of a trust called Peregrine to
make arrangements so that in the case of her death, 30% of the income from the
so-called Spanish Saudi Investment Fund would be bequeathed to Juan Carlos I.
The fund was backed by the then-king and she had also worked for it. The
documents, which were not signed, were created on March 27, 2007, 14 days
before the Spanish Saudi Investment Fund was registered in Guernsey, another
tax haven. Larsen’s lawyer has stated that these documents are false.
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