Julio Iglesias used shell companies to amass real estate portfolio: Pandora Papers

His real estate attorney is also linked to Venezuelan businessman Raúl Gorrín

Singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias (Getty Images, iStock)
Singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias (Getty Images, iStock)

Singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias crafted his real estate portfolio in South Florida using shell companies, including for five properties on the ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island, homes in the nearby town of Surfside, as well as for a property in Homestead.

Iglesias’ purchase of these properties was revealed in the Pandora Papers, a massive leak of nearly 13 million offshore shell company documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Miami Herald reported. Though his ownership of the Indian Creek properties had previously been reported, Iglesias’ other real estate acquisitions had not been made public until now.

Iglesias used the offshore services provider Trident Trust to create the offshore shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.

The properties identified in the report are worth up to $120 million today, the Herald reported.

Iglesias, an award-winning Latin artist, began assembling land in Indian Creek in 1978. He listed four of the properties in 2017 for $150 million, but sold one last year for $30 million to a prominent plastic surgeon. Iglesias also sold a 2-acre property in Homestead earlier this year for $900,000.

Each of Iglesias’ properties identified by the Miami Herald is owned by a different company, which means he and his family likely own more than what was revealed, according to the Miami Herald.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Read more

Iglesias, who has been accused of not paying taxes in his home country of Spain, and his second wife, Miranda Rijnsburger, list their residence in the Dominican Republic.

Rijnsburger, a former Dutch model, is listed on a number of property records, and Russell L. King, Iglesias’ real estate lawyer, is named in the Pandora Papers 468 times between 2009 and 2015.

King is also linked to the creation of a British Virgin Islands company that was owned by Venezuelan businessman Raúl Gorrín, who has been tied to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Gorrín left Miami, where he had lived in the wealthy Cocoplum community of Coral Gables, in 2017 for Venezuela before the U.S. announced charges against him in South Florida.

[Miami Herald] – Katherine Kallergis