Spain's former king, Juan Carlos, is being investigated over alleged misuse of credit cards, the Office of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court said in a statement Tuesday.
The investigation comes just hours after the Spanish online news site elDiario.es reported that prosecutors were investigating the former monarch, his wife, ex-Queen Sofía, as well as other members of the family over the use of credit cards that were linked to foreign accounts that were not in their names.
The attorney general's office didn't provide many details of the investigation, but instructed anti-corruption prosecutors to hand over reports on Juan Carlos to supreme court prosecutors, so they can "continue the investigation initiated by the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office."
© Daniel PerezKing Juan Carlos attends the wedding of Lady Charlotte Wellesley and Alejandro Santo Domingo at Illora on May 28, 2016 in Granada, Spain.
King Juan Carlos attends the wedding of Lady Charlotte Wellesley and Alejandro Santo Domingo at Illora on May 28, 2016 in Granada, Spain. (Daniel Perez/)
The 82-year-old ex-king is already under investigation for his alleged role in a deal involving a contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7.85 billion) awarded to a Spanish consortium to build a high-speed rail line in Saudi Arabia, according to The Guardian.
Investigators are looking into a payment of $100 million that Juan Carlos is accused of receiving from Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah in 2008, three years before the contract was awarded.
After the disgraced former monarch abdicated from the throne in 2014, amid a series of scandals, he lost any constitutional immunity that would've made him unimpeachable.
According to elDiario.es, the credit cards in the probe were used in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Among the expenses charged to Queen Sofía's credit cards are a number of trips to London, where she has maintained residence for years, one source told the publication.
The investigation does not concern the former king's son, Spain's current king, Felipe VI, or his wife, Queen Letizia.
Earlier this year, King Felipe VI renounced his personal inheritance and stripped his father of his annual stipend amid the alleged payment from King Abdullah, the BBC reported at the time.
Juan Carlos has recently left Spain to live in an undisclosed location.