Spanish singer found guilty of money laundering

Spanish singing star, Isabel Pantoja has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Malaga Provincial Court and fined in excess of €1 million.

She was found guilty of money laundering, but was not given a prison sentence as she has no previous convictions.

The former mayor of Marbella, Julian Muñoz, has been sentenced to seven years for money laundering and passive bribery. He was sent to Alhaurin de la Torre prison immediately without bail.

His ex-wife, Maite Zaldivar, has also been sentenced to three years, three months and one day in prison for money laundering. They have also been given heavy fines.

During1998 and 2003 Muñoz and Zaldivar were found to have spent more money than they could account for. Approximately €300,000 more.

 After they separated, Zaldivar made some cash payments that aroused suspicion. She bought an Audi A3 for €12,300 and a Porsche Cayenne for €75,000. She later formed a company called Delaware, with fiscal rrots in Gibraltar, and a bank account for the company in Marbella. This account was used to receive €506,000 from Switzerland, although €384,000 remained blocked in a Swiss bank account. Zaldivar had a Visa card for the account which she used to make purchases during November 2003 until July 2006 totalling €89,000, and cash withdrawals of €12,270.

Pantoja had allowed Muñoz to launder money illicitly received when he was mayor through her businesses and accounts, and she declared €132,000 to hacienda when the figure was over €293,000.

Unrelated to this case, Pantoja faced controversy having performed a concert in Torrevieja in 2012 in which 1,374 tickets were sold, with the singer charging €88,000 for the performance, the promotion company allegedly making a huge loss on the event, with questions over the funding and profiteering of that event being raised.