Juan Carlos, the former king of Spain, has created a personal trust in the United Arab Emirates, shedding light on the extent of his mysterious wealth.

Citing sources close to Juan Carlos, an investigation by Spain’s El Confidencial newspaper found that the 86-year-old created the trust in the country’s capital, Abu Dhabi, where he currently resides. It is thought he has done so with a view to “centralising” his wealth, and to organise the eventual inheritance of princesses Elena and Cristina, his two daughters.

The structure is to be presided over by Carlos himself, with his daughters as members of the trust’s board.

Juan Carlos left Spain for Abu Dhabi in August 2020, shortly after his son, King Felipe VI, had announced that he was removing his father’s €200,000 (£168,000) annual stipend from the royal budget.

It followed the revelation by The Telegraph that the former monarch had named his son as the heir to a $100m (£76.4m) Panamanian fund.

His personal wealth has since remained a mystery to the Spanish public, though judicial investigations in Switzerland and Spain revealed that the former king had had access to large offshore funds that he had not declared.

When in 2020 and 2021 Juan Carlos paid more than €5m (£4.2m) in back taxes to avoid being prosecuted in Spain for tax evasion, it was reported that around a dozen businessman friends had loaned him the money to cover the bill.

But sources close to the former king told El Confidencial that Juan Carlos “still has funds available and he wants to leave everything ready so that they can be managed by his daughters in the future.”

According to Juan Carlos’s former lover, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who was herself investigated but not charged in Switzerland over a €65m (£54.8m) “gift” from the then-Spanish king, Juan Carlos used his secret fortune to support his children.

Elena and Cristina, who were removed from the official royal family by King Felipe after he took up the throne in 2014, have remained close to Juan Carlos.

“From what he said to me, any family member who needed cash helped themselves to it,” Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said.

The Telegraph asked Juan Carlos’s public relations representative about the reported trust but did not receive any response.