Spain’s Prime Minister Accused Of Receiving Illegal Cash Payments As Corruption Scandal Widens
2013 02 07
By Agustino Fontevecchia | Forbes.com
A corruption scandal blew up in Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s face over the past few days, sending the stock market down in a crash as bond yields surged dramatically. As opposition leaders call for his head, Rajoy rejected accusations that he and other top members of the Popular Party (PP) received illegal cash payments, promising to post his tax returns online so that “truth may prevail.” It appears unlikely that the so-called Gurtel Scandal will force Rajoy out, but the return of political rumblings have unsettled markets after months of relative calm, raising fears that the European sovereign debt crisis might flare up once again.
“Never, and I repeat, never have I received, nor distributed black money,” Rajoy said last Saturday, responding to accusations that he had formed part of a corruption ring that received money from a construction company in exchange for public contracts.
Mariano Rajoy with Germany’s Angela Merkel at a press conference in Berlin on Monday | |
The scandal, uncovered by Spanish daily El Pais over the past few days, bulldozed market confidence in Madrid, sending the stock market down nearly 4% on Monday. After months of continued improvement, Spanish bond markets deteriorated as well, with the yield on 10-years jumping dramatically to 5.44%, hitting its highest levels since mid-December.
Rajoy referenced the case again Monday in Berlin, where he was meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying “everything that refers to me […] is totally and absolutely false.” The Prime Minister has found himself tied to a corruption scandal that involves the PP’s former national treasurer, Luis Barcenas, who has reportedly stashed €22 million ($30 million) in a Swiss bank.
[...]
Read the full article at: forbes.com
Related Articles
Spain Now Faces a Systemic, Societal, and Sovereign Collapse
Red Cross makes Spain appeal as economic crisis bites
Eurozone crisis: Spain inching closer to a meltdown
Anti-austerity clashes in Spain (Photos)
Storm looming in eurozone as Spain economy falters
IMF Head and Sarkozy embroiled in new corruption inquiry
Barclays rate rigging crisis shows ’corruption at heart of banking’
Latest News from our Front Page
|
BBC, UK media told to shut up in the name of national security
2013 06 19
MoD serves news outlets with D notice over surveillance leaks
BBC and other media groups issued with D notice to limit publication of information that could ’jeopardise national security’
Defence officials issued a confidential D notice to the BBC and other media groups in an attempt to censor coverage of surveillance tactics employed by intelligence agencies in the UK and US.
Editors were ... |
Uri Geller psychic spy? The spoon-bender’s secret life as a Mossad and CIA agent revealed
2013 06 19
A new documentary claims the showbiz psychic is involved in global espionage - and that after 9/11 he was ’reactivated’ as a pyschic spy.
We may know him for spoon bending antics and for his lengthy friendship with pop star Michael Jackson but showbiz psychic Uri Geller has seemingly had a lengthy second career as a secret agent for Mossad ... |
Confirmed: 1-Billion-Year-Old Water Tastes ’Terrible’
2013 06 19
Saltier than sea water and the consistency of "very light maple syrup." Yuck.
Last month, a paper published in Nature reported on some water that had been trapped 1.5 miles below the Earth’s surface in Canada for a long while. How long? Based on an analysis of the isotopes of natural gases in the water, scientists believe it to be ... |
The Govt Is Spying on America with Drones, Too
2013 06 19
In an alarming but hardly shocking admission, FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed that drones have been used to conduct surveillance in the US, though he was quick to reassure citizens that it was ’very seldom’.
He did not disclose the particulars of the surveillance to the Senate hearing being held on Wednesday (June 19, 2013), but went on to characterize ... |
TWA Flight 800 Investigators Claim the Official Crash Story Is a Lie
2013 06 19
A new film claims the official government report on the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 is an elaborate fabrication, but the most shocking part of the story is that charges are being leveled by some of the very investigators who put the report together. Six experts who appear in the film were members of the National Transportation Safety ... |
| More News » |
|
|
|
|
