Do we like them?

Do we like Amancio Ortega?

Our score: 5 out of 10. A big record of giving and no harmful words of his own found, set against a tax ruling and labour stories from his supply chain.

Amancio Ortega is the man behind Zara. He is Inditex's largest shareholder, holding more than 59%, mostly through his family investment vehicle Pontegadea. That vehicle also owns a property portfolio that includes buildings in New York, Miami, Toronto and London. He's one of the richest people on the planet, and he keeps well out of the spotlight.

The best-documented brush with the law is a tax one. In 2013 Spain's High Court ordered him to pay about €33 million in back taxes for 2001 to 2003, saying his advisers had set up an artificial family network. The report was clear that he was not found guilty of fraud and that the fight was over how the tax rules should be read. It's a stain on the books rather than a crime.

Then there's the supply chain. In 2011 Brazilian investigators found slave-like conditions at factories supplying Zara, and prosecutors settled for a fine of US$1.8 million, down from an original US$10.7 million. A 2019 study by the Clean Clothes Campaign alleged that seamstresses in Morocco working for Inditex suppliers were paid as little as €178 a month for up to 65 hours a week. That report carried no Inditex response, and these are company stories rather than his personal acts, but he's the boss.

On the harm check, the honest answer is that very little turned up. We found no campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, no conspiracy-theory slide and no culture-war grifting in anything he has said or done. He rarely speaks to the press, so there are few words of his to judge. That leaves a thin record rather than a glowing one, and we can't tell you what he thinks about anything.

Not everyone clapped. Podemos and public health groups called the 2017 donation inappropriate, pointing to accusations that Inditex avoids tax, which the company denies. One group's spokeswoman called it a “way to avoid paying taxes”, and Pablo Iglesias called it a “marketing ploy”. Where you land depends on whether you see the machines as a gift or as a substitute for tax.

So: no harm in his own words, a lot of cash handed out, and a boss's share of the baggage that comes with a giant global supply chain. We're calling the harm test a pass and the good-person test a mixed. Nobody would be ashamed to own a Zara jacket because of him, but nobody is getting a poster of him either.