Infanta Cristina of Spain, the sister of King Felipe VI, has been fined nearly €600,000 in relation to corruption charges faced by her husband Iñaki Urdangarin. State prosecutor Pedro Horrach demanded the Spanish royal pay €587,413. This amounts to half of the funds that it's alleged were illegally obtained by a company she ran jointly with her husband.
© Photo: Getty ImagesInfanta Cristina arriving at court for questioning in February
Her defence team said the king's sister would pay the sum immediately in order to be "simultaneously be freed of both civil and criminal responsibility".In return the state prosecutor has asked the court to throw out two counts of tax fraud resulting from a private prosecution brought by anti-corruption action group Manos Limpias or Clean Hands.
In 2011, Iñaki was accused, along with a former business partner, of exploiting his royal connections to win contracts for his Noos Institute and embezzle €6m in public funds. It is alleged that some of this money eventually found its way to Aizoon, a company run by Cristina and Iñaki.
© Photo: Getty ImagesInfanta Cristina and Iñaki Urdangarin have been at the centre of corruption since 2011
In a preliminary hearing in February, 400 questions were put to the royal. Cristina, a mother of four, answered 'I don't know' to 182 and said she trusted her husband, a handsome former Olympic handball player, to manage their finances.The state is seeking a 19-and-a-half-year sentence for her husband. He has denied the charges. The couple's current legal predicament is a far cry from the glamour of their wedding in 1997 when Cristina was given away by her father the previous King Juan Carlos.
