FORMER minister of industry José Manuel Soria has just reported that his main home in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been burgled.
Thieves entered in the early hours of Christmas Day and took the safe deposit box, containing jewellery and an undisclosed sum of money in cash.
This is not the first time burglars have struck in the Tafira Alta neighbourhood – Soria is just one of numerous victims of a recent crimewave in the district over the past few months.
Soria has not had a good year in general – he resigned on April 15, when he was then only acting minister for industry, energy and tourism as Spain had been without a government since the previous November.
He had been named in the infamous 'Panamá Papers', where high-ranking politicians and celebrities worldwide – including the now-ex prime minister for the UK, David Cameron – were 'outed' by a law firm in the central American country for using dormant front companies to launder money.
Soria was later nominated by president Mariano Rajoy for a lucrative world banking job, which he was forced to turn down due to public outcry over a person caught hiding money from the taxman being given a 'promotion'.
He and his family had not been at their home in Las Palmas at the time, and burglars took advantage of its being empty to enter freely and take his safe.