The two leaders of an anti-corruption group that brought tax fraud charges against Princess Cristina of Spain are in custody accused of extortion for allegedly offering to drop the case in return for €3 million.
After the princess’s lawyers informed police about the alleged offer, Miguel Bernad, director of Manos Limpias, the far-right anti-corruption group, and Luis Pineda, the group’s legal counsel and head of Ausbanc, a banking association, were arrested and charged with extortion, making threats and membership of a criminal organisation. They have been remanded in custody.
Judge Santiago Pedraz, who sits in Madrid’s national criminal court and is investigating the allegations, said that last month Mr Pineda had contacted the director of the charitable foundation of La Caixa bank, for whom Princess