Spanish court to grill billionaire Villar Mir over contract rigging allegations

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish billionaire and former finance minister Juan Miguel Villar Mir will face questioning by a judge over alleged irregularities in the award of a hospital construction contract to his real estate conglomerate, a court said on Tuesday. Prosecutors allege that Grupo Villar Mir (GVM), the private holding that the 85-year-old industrialist has spent the past 30 years building up, won the contract in 2006 by rigging the auction. Villar Mir has always denied any wrongdoing. GVM owns a majority stake in Spanish builder OHL . After the allegations first surfaced in 2006, the contract worth 600 million euros (510.76 million pounds) was handed to a subsidiary of another Madrid-listed builder, ACS . Reuters could not immediately reach Villar Mir, an influential business leader who sits on the board of Spain's biggest bank Santander . He will be questioned on Jan. 9 via video link along with six other people involved in the tender to build the Son Espases hospital on the island of Mallorca, Judge Jose Castro wrote in a court ruling. Villar Mir and his family have the fifth-biggest fortune in Spain, valued at $3.1 billion according to Forbes. Villar Mir passed on the chairmanship of OHL to his son in July. (Reporting by Rodrigo Miguel; Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by Richard Lough)