The British Council Refugee (BCR), a discreet group that helps political refugees in the United Kingdom, has acquired greater than two million kilos (2,334,000 euros) in donation from a fund owned by the historian and former banker Joaquín Romero Maura, who died in 2022. in a nursing house in Zaragoza. The cash comes from the JMR 2004 Trust, an opaque monetary instrument linked to Juan Carlos I and created on the island of Jersey, a tax haven in the English Channel.
The 2.3 million correspond to the first cost of Romero Maura’s legacy, which the directors of the belief have despatched the managers of the British Council Refugee, whose headquarters are situated in a easy three-story glass constructing in Stratford, east of London. A spokesperson for the London NGO confirms to EL PAÍS the receipt of the first 2.3 million: “We acquired greater than 2 million kilos, between the belief (funds from the belief) and legacy. We aren’t positive of the quantity we’ll obtain in 2024 as we can’t estimate it till the property have been assessed. “There is at present no assured annual contribution, however we anticipate future funds at the discretion of the trustees who oversee the funds.”
The BCR administrators took greater than six months to resolve whether or not to settle for the donation of 16 million since the origin of this fortune carefully linked to the former head of state is a thriller that has not been clarified. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office investigated this belief to decide if the cash belonged to the emeritus king. Until 2004 and for nearly a decade, the then King Juan Carlos I used to be the proprietor of the funds.
The group will use these funds for normal charitable functions “together with operating providers for refugees and asylum seekers to allow them to rebuild their lives safely, in addition to campaigning for and enhancing a refugee safety system in the UK,” says the group’s spokesperson.
Secrets and reluctance
Romero Maura, who was 81 years previous when he died, was a professor of History at Oxford University and had no kids. In his will he left the 10 million from the belief and all of his property. This was made up of an account in Switzerland and two homes in the United Kingdom (London) and in France (Périgord) with their parking areas, valued at one other 5 million kilos (5,844,000 euros), as acknowledged by the group and confirmed by a donor’s member of the family.
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The final financial institution the place the cash of this enigmatic man ended up belief It is Investec Bank, in Guernsey, one other tiny island of 78 sq. kilometers, in the English Channel. There are the directors who annually will ship an quantity to the NGO as stipulated in the will of the former trusted man of the emeritus king. But beforehand the fortune handed by ten different banks, all in tax havens, and their compliance departments carried out inner investigations with out having the ability to decide the origin of the cash, in accordance to paperwork to which EL PAÍS has had entry. Almost all firms had been reluctant, and one felt so uncomfortable with asset administration that it elevated its charges due to the reputational threat it posed. This is the case of Zedra Trustees in Jersey.
The funds that the NGO will obtain annually come from the liquidation of two different trusts created in 1995 and 1997 by Manuel Prado and Colón de Carvajal, a shut pal of the king. In each monetary devices, the then head of state was the sole beneficiary of the cash. And this fortune got here from a firm based mostly in the British Virgin Islands, in accordance to financial institution documentation. In this account and, all the time in accordance to the testimony of the managers of that point, donations went from unidentified individuals who supported Juan Carlos I between the fifties and seventies. The most vital contribution occurred in 1999 by Simeón de Bulgaria. He transferred 9 million {dollars} (8,384,572 euros) from an account at JP Morgan in Switzerland. According to the British John Ruddy, then administrator of the fund, the function of those two belief was to help the then King Juan Carlos I in the occasion of a coup d’état.
The Supreme Court prosecutors closed the investigation into these funds after discovering no proof linking The JRM 2004 Trust to Juan Carlos I, “neither in its administration nor in the skill to get rid of the funds.” And they highlighted that since its structure in 2004, the king emeritus was not its beneficiary, neither is there proof that he has acquired any quantity from its accounts. Romero Maura did have a part of the cash to purchase a number of homes, in accordance to Ruddy, the supervisor (protector) of the belief.
Since 2005 and thru completely different letters despatched to the completely different directors, the former banker and historian communicated his want that after he and his spouse died, all the cash can be allotted to social care and particularly to kids. After his spouse died, the man who acquired the fortune from the then head of state bought his home in Switzerland and retired to a city in Périgord, southwest of France. An sickness compelled him to enter the Ballesol residence in Zaragoza the place he died after receiving the care and firm of his two brothers who lived in that metropolis. It was exactly John Ruddy, who knowledgeable the household of his will in favor of the NGO. Until his demise, Romero Maura stored one in every of the most compromised secrets and techniques of the earlier head of state: the creation in 2004 in a legislation agency at quantity 50 La Colombière Street, in the capital of Jersey, of a belief along with his initials and 14,923,604 euros whose origin stays unclear.
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