Spanish king's daughter faces tax probe

MADRID : A Spanish judge Friday ordered an investigation into the tax affairs of King Juan Carlos's youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, adding to the woes of the scandal-hit royal family.
A judge in Palma de Mallorca demanded the tax authorities provide him with a report on Cristina's property and non-property assets, investment funds, financial assets and deposits, a copy of the order showed.
The judge, Jose Castro, is presiding over an inquiry into allegations of embezzlement against the 47-year-old princess' husband, the former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin.
Cristina won some respite on May 7 when judges spared her for the time being from being called into court to be questioned as a formal suspect in the embezzlement case.
But they said she may yet be summoned to the court in Palma de Mallorca on the Balearic Islands in another branch of the affair: a tax and money-laundering case also linked to her husband.
Castro is investigating accusations that Urdangarin and his former business partner Diego Torres embezzled six million euros ($8 million) in public funds meant for sports events.
The money was allegedly placed in the non-profit Noos Institute, which Urdangarin chaired from 2004 to 2006 and of which Cristina was a board member. Neither she nor Urdangarin has been charged with any crime.

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