The father, aunt and grandmother of Queen Letizia of Spain are looking at jail time after being accused of hiding assets during a bankruptcy proceeding.
Jesús Ortiz Álvarez, Henar Ortiz Álvarez & María del Carmen Álvarez del Valle all owned a cooperative called ‘Henarmonía, S.C.’.
This company was driven into bankruptcy in 2009 after one Sandra María, owed 22.600,73€, took legal proceedings to recover her money.
Anyway, the three declared bankruptcy to avoid paying the debt, but Sandra María’s lawyers accuse the grandmother, María del Carmen, of hiding assets from the bankruptcy court.
The allegation is that María Carmen, acting with the understanding of the other two, stood to inherit the family house after the recent death of her husband, the grandfather of the Queen. This would have meant the house would have been seized by the court.
So, instead, her share of the debt was taken over by the other two, and they rejected their share of the family house in favour of the grandmother. She then took out an inverse mortgage, which is a financial product for the over -65’s in which the value of their house is made available in cash, but you don’t have to pay any of it back until you die, at which point the house is sold off.
If they are found guilty, they could all be looking at prison of up to three years plus hefty fines. Bail has been set at 41.149€.