Yesterday El Pais live streamed the pre-trial motions in the Noos case and I watched most of it. I’m not sure why I find it so interesting, I suppose it just represents a very troubling picture of Spain- and society.
The BBC summarized the case quite well: “…Mr Urdangarin’s supposedly non-profit Noos Institute sports foundation was allegedly used as a vehicle to win falsely inflated contracts from regional government bodies, before channelling the money to personal accounts via tax havens.
Noos is alleged to have received more than €6m (£4.4m; $6.5m) of public money, most of it from the Balearic Islands and Valencia regional governments.
… Princess Cristina was a board member at the foundation and, with Mr Urdangarin, co-owned a real estate company called Aizoon, which prosecutors say was used to launder embezzled funds.
One of the allegations against the princess is that she made personal use of Aizoon funds for paying for clothes and dance lessons for the couple’s children as well as work on the couple’s Barcelona mansion.”
When they say work on the couple’s mansion, they mean transforming the Pedralbes house from this:
Into this:
So we’re not talking about changing the curtains or some new cushions for the terrace furniture.
Anyway, Princess Cristina is going with the Blue Jasmine defence as used by Mrs. Madoff: I knew nothing of my husband’s dealings. Keep in mind she studied political science, got an MA in International Relations and worked at UNESCO. Yet she didn’t ask, at any moment, where the money came from to buy and reform her primary residence, the Pedralbes house. And it never occurred to her that paying for bills with her non-profit’s checkbook wasn’t entirely above board.
I find the whole thing mystifying. Why would people who already had quite comfortable lives embark on something like this to have slightly more comfortable lives? It’s absurd.
People reach a position of wealth and influence that they think the law does not apply to them, that they are above the law. They develop a sense of entitlement and immunity due to their delusional grandiosity.
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Typical Spanish reformation there. Get rid of some perfectly decent looking old building with some ghastly bling. She looks like Sofia.
Do keep us posted. Will save me looking for updates on it 🙂
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Isn’t it shocking? It was a solid, good looking house from the 20’s, full of original features.
The judges are currently deliberating on the motions and will have their response on the 9th of February. It’s a panel of three women judges, all known for being tough… we’ll see 🙂
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The house looks lovely. *looked* reminded me vaguely of yours.
I’ll be mildly interested in the outcome. And then … what about the rest of the alleged corruption in Spain? Ha.
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I know what you mean. There’s something about the feel that’s quite similar.
That style was hugely popular between the 20’s and the 40’s. Many of great houses in America emulated it. For some reason there they call it Spanish *colonial*, although it was just Spanish with Mudejar influences.
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Anyone who can do that to such a house deserves incarceration….
These bods seem to think that company money is personal money…look at the trend for companies to borrow money at low interest rates to buy back their own shares…thus boosting the share price and – quelle surprise – the board members’ bonuses…
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Why would people who had a comfortable life engage in corruption to have a more comfortable life? Same reason an alcoholic who already had 2 martinis has another (and another)…a little is good, MORE MUST BE BETTER.
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Moneyholism? Or a$sholism? 😀
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Both
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How on earth was she allowed to make such drastic & horrible alterations to her house? I think she is simply very greedy, & stupidly assumed she wouldn’t get caught, assuming her spending was ever queried.
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Town planning in Spain is much more lax than Britain or France- but even more than that, I imagine planners were just scared to death of upsetting Her Royal Highness 😉
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Sad. The house, the greed, everything.
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