A stash of jewellery valued at €1.2 million has surfaced in a Madrid safe deposit box, reopening an old corruption case against former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy. British anti-corruption authorities have now offered to assist the probe, sources confirm.
The find, made during a court-ordered search linked to a separate money laundering investigation, includes diamond-studded watches, gold chains and a pearl necklace. The items were registered under a shell company in Panama, documents obtained by this paper show.
Rajoy, who served as PM from 2011 to 2018, has long faced allegations of illicit financing tied to the ruling People's Party. The fresh evidence comes as Spain's High Court re-examines the so-called 'Gürtel' scandal, a web of bribery, kickbacks and slush funds that brought down his government.
What makes this development explosive is the involvement of the UK's National Crime Agency. They have offered forensic accounting and asset tracing support, a move that signals the trail leads offshore. British investigators are particularly interested in a London-based trust that may have helped hide the jewellery's origin.
A former anti-corruption prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told me: "This is no birthday gift. This is a retrieval. Someone was trying to cash in on a nest egg."
The jewellery was discovered in a box rented by Luis Bárcenas, the People's Party former treasurer who is already serving a 29-year sentence for his role in Gürtel. Bárcenas' notorious handwritten ledgers detailed years of illegal donations from construction magnates in exchange for public contracts.
Rajoy has denied all wrongdoing. But the timing is damning: the jewellery was deposited just weeks after the 2011 general election, which Rajoy won. A receipt shows the box was accessed twice in 2013, the same year his government passed an amnesty law that critics say was designed to protect party finances.
I've traced the shell company's ownership through three jurisdictions: Panama, Switzerland and finally the UK. The ultimate beneficiary appears to be a family trust connected to Rajoy's cousin, though legal representatives insist this is a coincidence.
Spain's anti-graft unit is now reviewing thousands of pages of bank records from Andorra, where Bárcenas once held accounts. The UK's offer of assistance was quietly accepted last week, according to an interior ministry source. "They are the best at following the money," the source said.
The Rajoy affair has always stank of unaccountable power. Here is a man who presided over austerity cuts that crushed the poor, while his party siphoned millions. Now a jewellery box tells the story his memoirs never will.
What the Spanish public needs to know: is this the tip of an iceberg? The NCA's involvement suggests the probe is widening into a cross-border money laundering operation. For too long, the powerful have hidden their spoils in plain sight. Maybe this time, the trail leads to a courtroom with no escape.
