Four years in prison and more than six million euros is the penalty he faces Arantxa Sanchez Vicario as civil liability for a crime of seizure of assets or punishable insolvency. After years of controversy, the Bank of Luxembourg has finally managed to prosecute the former tennis player and her still husband, Joseph Santacanawho will sit together in the dock for the accused next September 2023.
The couple separated four years ago, but their divorce process is more than convoluted in the courts, as is their heritage and their entire lives. On this new front with Justice, an oral trial will be held against both of them and the people indicated as their front men that will begin on September 12, 2023 and will last until the 15th of the same month. It will be before the head of criminal court number 25 of Barcelona, in the great room of the Ciutat de la Justícia, known as the auditorium, to resolve the criminal complaint filed by the Bank of Luxembourg.
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The complaint includes the request for a sentence of four years in prison and more than six million euros for Arantxa and whoever was her partner, who will be tried together with four front men and a series of companies that, according to the prosecution, used by mutual agreement to decapitalize and get rid of the enormous real estate assets that the tennis player accumulated over the years, as published by La Vanguardia.
The decapitalization was malicious, according to the complainants. What the couple wanted was to avoid the obligation to pay the debt contracted with the bank: in 2009, the Supreme Court sentenced Sánchez Vicario to pay a fine for tax evasion of 5.2 million between principal and interest.
The Treasury received thanks to a guarantee from Banco de Sabadell. The Catalan entity recovered the money thanks to a counter-guarantee signed with the Luxembourg bank. This was precisely the bank where Arantxa kept part of his fortune when the International Management Group company managed his contracts.
The Luxembourg bank complied with its obligation and made the guarantee effective. But of course, already in May 2010 he claimed the money from the tennis player, because her account with the entity was empty. After several notices and meetings, Arantxa told the Luxembourg baqueros that she did not know her assets nor could she dispose of them, and she asked for more time to gather information and respond to the bank.
But they caught him in a lie. As will be remembered, the athlete in 2009 was already married to Santacana and it was quite a scandal that she revoked before a notary the powers held by her father and administrator and, from that moment, all her assets (money, shares and real estate) to put it in the hands of your partner without anyone else being able to exercise any control. Arantxa came to sue and complain against her family, which she pushed away from her, as well as friends and advisors who until then had advised her well and loyally.
The Luxembourg entity sued the couple in March 2011 through civil proceedings and two and a half years later obtained a favorable sentence that ordered Arantxa to pay the bank 5.2 million euros plus late-payment interest. Neither Arantxa nor Santacana appealed, but they did not present a list of assets or try to get rid of the debt, which was already 7.5 million euros. The bank filed a criminal complaint in 2015, and this is the complaint for which the marriage will be tried in September.
Arantxa has already tried to play the victim before the judge, when in 2021 she filed a brief to defend herself and point out Josep Santacana as the manipulator who, in effect, had convinced her to hide her assets, and who had also squandered her fortune.
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Although he showed regret, he stressed that he had already paid 1.8 million to the bank and was asking for a minimum sentence of seven months but without going to prison, it will not be easy for him to reach an agreement with the financial institution, and he could end up behind bars. because he doesn’t have a penny. The Metropolitan International School in Miami where she worked as sports director closed in 2021 and she now barely has any income from appearances in the media.
Her husband has also presented a brief in which he removes guilt and denies having been an administrator of the fortune. He says that he only cashed some checks, some scoop from the gossip and showed one of her houses to a real estate agent; he also assures that his wife still has the “pasta” in Switzerland.