Iñaki Urdangarin

Iñaki Urdangarin
Iñaki Urdangarin
Born	(1968-01-15) 15 January 1968 Zumárraga, Basque Country, Spain
Spouse	Infanta Cristina Federica of Spain (m. 1997)
Issue	Juan Urdangarin y de Borbón Pablo Urdangarin y de Borbón Miguel Urdangarin y de Borbón Irene Urdangarin y de Borbón
Full name The Most Excellent Don Iñaki Urdangarin Liebaert
Father	Don Juan María Urdangarin Berriochoa
Mother	Mme. Claire Françoise Liebaert Courtain

Spanish Royal Family
HM The King HM The Queen HRH The Princess of Asturias HRH Infanta Sofía HM King Juan Carlos I HM Queen Sofía

Olympic medal record
Men’s handball
	1996 Atlanta	Team Competition
	2000 Sydney	Team Competition

Iñaki Urdangarin y Liebaert^[1] (born 15 January 1968), is a retired handball player. He is the husband of the Infanta Cristina, the second child of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain.

Personal life

Urdangarin is the son of Juan María Urdangarin Berriochoa (b. Zumárraga, 19 September 1932 - d. Vitoria-Gasteiz, 10 May 2012) and wife Claire Françoise Liebaert Courtain (b. Antwerp, 16 July 1935), of Spanish Basque and Belgian (both Walloon and Flemish) descent respectively. He has six siblings. His paternal grandparents Laureano de Urdangarin y Larrañaga (1898–1982) and wife Ana de Berriochoa y Elgarresta (1902–1996) came from Basque minor nobility.

Sports career

At the age of 18, Urdangarin became a professional handball player with FC Barcelona Handbol, where he remained until his retirement in 2000. Meanwhile, he studied at the Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE) in Barcelona, from which he received a master's degree in business administration.

As a member of the Spanish handball team, he participated in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics, serving as team captain in 2000. The team won the bronze medal in 1996 and 2000.

Marriage and children

It was at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta that he met the Infanta Cristina, whom he married in Barcelona on 4 October 1997. Upon his marriage, Urdangarin became jure uxoris The Most Excellent The Duke of Palma de Mallorca (Spanish: Excelentísimo Señor El Duque de Palma de Mallorca). The couple have four children, all born in Barcelona, and all of whom are entitled to the style Excellency:

• Don Juan Valentín de Todos los Santos Urdangarin y de Borbón (born 29 September 1999)
• Don Pablo Nicolás Sebastián de Todos los Santos Urdangarin y de Borbón (born 6 December 2000)
• Don Miguel de Todos los Santos Urdangarin y de Borbón (born 30 April 2002)
• Doña Irene de Todos los Santos Urdangarin y de Borbón (born 5 June 2005)

They lived in Barcelona until 2009, where Urdangarin was director of planning and development for Motorpress Ibérica and a founding partner of Nóos Consultoría Estratégica. From 2009-2011, the Royal couple and their family lived in Washington, D.C., where he worked for Telefónica, before returning to Barcelona. In August 2013, Infanta Christina moved with her four children to Geneva, Switzerland, to take a job with the Caixa Foundation, while her husband, the subject of an embezzlement investigation, remained in Barcelona,^[2] to assure his judicial defense, then he joined the new family place of residence a short time later. Deputy Loly Bolay, former president of the Genevan Council, meets the couple to welcome him.^[3]

Urdangarin has been a member of the Spanish Olympic Committee since 4 April 2001, and was elected first deputy chairman on 16 February 2004. In 2001, he received the Grand Cross of the Spanish Royal Order of Sports Merit (Real Orden del Mérito Deportivo).^[4]

Alleged corruption and money laundering scandal

In November 2011, Urdangarin was accused of diverting public funds for his own profit through the Nóos institute in the 'Palma Arena' case.^[5] Searches were conducted at the Nóos institute by the Spanish Anticorruption bureau.^[6] The daily El País has released a suspicious budget document for one international event that was organized by the aforementioned institute which was managed by Urdangarin at that time.^[7] It is believed that he persuaded various Spanish public administrations (mostly regional governments) to sign agreements with his company, the Nóos Institute (which was supposed to be a non-profit organization) for both work that was never done and work that was dramatically overbudgeted up to €5,800,000 from public Administrations.^[8]

In December 2011, the Anticorruption Bureau confirmed that Urdangarin had been sending substantial sums of public money to accounts in Belize and the United Kingdom. That same month, the Royal Household of Spain announced that Urdangarin would not participate in any official Royal Family activity for the foreseeable future, as a result of the Instituto Nóos scandal.

In the King's Christmas speech on 24 December 2011, King Juan Carlos stated that "La justicia es igual para todos" ("Justice is the same for everyone"); the following day he clarified that he was speaking generally.^[9]

On 6 February 2012, Urdangarin appeared before a judge regarding allegations of corruption.^[10] He is being investigated, with 14 others, including Jaume Matas, former premier of the Balearics.^[11][12] He appeared again on 25 February 2012 in Mallorca to answer questions before the investigating judge, José Castro.

On January 26, 2013, the Spanish royal household removed the section covering Iñaki Urdangarin from its official website.

Since June 12, 2015, he is no longer referred to as the Duke of Palma de Mallorca following the removal of that title from his wife the Infanta Cristina.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

• 15 January 1968 – 4 October 1997: Don Iñaki Urdangarin Liebaert
• 4 October 1997 – 12 June 2015: His Excellency Don Iñaki, Duke of Palma de Mallorca
• 12 June 2015 – present: The Most Excellent Don Iñaki Urdangarin Liebaert^[13]

In view of contradictory Spanish legislation, enacted over the past 30 years, Urdangarin was not legally entitled to use the ducal title of his wife ^[14] (Royal Decree 1368/1987, Transitory Provisions, Third).^[15] But by centuries-old social convention in Spain, he held the courtesy title of duke. As such, by the same social convention he was styled as "His Excellency", and as a Grand Cross he remains officially addressed as The Most Excellent.^[16]

Honours

See also List of honours of the Spanish Royal Family by country

• Spain  : Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sports Merit (Real Orden del Mérito Deportivo, 30/11/2001).^[17][18]
• Luxembourg  : Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown (07/05/2001).^[19]

Arms

Arms of Iñaki Urdangarin

Notes Iñaki Urdangarin personal coat of arms. Crest Issuant from a torse Argent, Or and Gules, a plume of three ostrich feathers two Argent and Gules; Torse Mantling Argent and Gules. Escutcheon A field of silver, displaying a tree of vert and at its trunk booted a wolf passant of sable, surrounded by a bordure of gules, charged with eight saltires of gold. Orders The ribbon of the Grand Cross of the Spanish Royal Order of the Sports Merit (Real Orden del Mérito Deportivo). Symbolism Coat of arms of Garai The coat of arms is that of the anteiglesia of Garai, Biscay, coinciding with that of the Lordship of Biscay, i.e., that of the Count of Haro.[20] Previous versions From 1997 to 2015 The coat of arms used as Duke Consort of Palma shown the coronet of a Grandee of Spain as crest.

References

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