fraud

Pau Molins criticizes tax differences between Spanish regions

Public prosecutor requests 8-year sentence for Colombian singer accused of owing tax office €14.5m

Public prosecutor requests 8-year sentence for Colombian singer accused of owing tax office €14.5m

Marcel Mauri calls move a “maneuver by the state powers to protect themselves”

JxCat congress spokesperson Laura Borràs is accused of financial mismanagement during her time as head of the Institute of Catalan Letters

Although the singer was living in Catalonia from 2012 to 2014, she paid her taxes in the Bahamas

Latvia’s Anti-fraud Office couldn’t find any evidence to prove that former Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, was bribed to back Catalonia’s pro-independence aspirations. In an exclusive interview with the CNA in 2013, Dombrovskis, who was still Latvia’s Prime Minister at the time, defended the possibility of his government recognising Catalonia’s independence as long as the process was “legitimate”. Soon afterwards, Spanish magazine ‘Interviu’, citing a Spanish police report, accused Dombrovskis of allegedly receiving 6 MEUR in exchange for expressing his support for Catalonia’s political aspirations. According to Latvia’s Anti-fraud Office spokeswoman, Laura Dusa, there are “no reasons to open a judicial process” because “there is no proof of a bribe”.

FC Barcelona’s Player, Lionel Messi, and his father Jorge have been sentenced to 21 months in prison after Barcelona’s High Court found them guilty of three counts of tax evasion. The court also ordered the football star to pay a fine of more than 2 MEUR and his father to pay 1.5MEUR. However, as the sentence is under two years, it is unlikely that Messi and his father end up in prison, especially ifthere is no prior criminal report. Moreover, the Court’s decision is not definitive and can still be appealed before Spain's Supreme Court. Messi and his father are accused of having moved 4.1m EUR earned from the player’s image rights to tax havens between 2007 and 2009.  

Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel de Alfonso has been dismissed by the Catalan Chamber. All the groups in the Parliament, except for the Conservative People’s Party (PP) considered de Alfonso unfit to continue with his duties after several tapes published last week by Spanish newspaper ‘Público’ revealed conversations between him and current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, where they both plotted to accuse and discredit Catalonia’s main pro-independence parties, left-wing ERC and Liberal Convergència. This Wednesday, pro-independence cross-party ‘Junts Pel Sí’s spokeswoman, Marta Rovira, accused de Alfonso of “obvious and severe negligence” of his duties and lamented the “political and partisan use” he made out of the Anti-fraud Office. 

Current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, reacted this Wednesday to the recordings published on Tuesday by Spanish newspaper ‘Público’ which revealed a conversation between current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office, Daniel de Alfonso Laso, about trying to smear Catalonia’s main pro-independence parties left-wing ERC and liberal Convergència. “I just found out yesterday”, stated Rajoy and added did he didn’t know “who was Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office nor that this position even existed”. The scandal comes five days before the 26-J Spanish Elections and puts Fernández Díaz in a very sensitive position, as he is running for the Spanish Elections in Barcelona province.

The Catalan Chamber has started the necessary procedures to dismiss Director of Catalonia’s Anti-fraud Office Daniel De Alfonso, on account of his involvement in a smear scandal against pro-independence parties liberal Convergència and left-wing ERC. He will also be called this Thursday to give explanations before the Parliament’s Commission for Institutional Affairs and may be definitively dismissed by next week. According to a series of recordings published on Tuesday by Spanish newspaper ‘Público’, De Alonso and current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs and People’s Party candidate for the Spanish Elections in Barcelona, Jorge Fernández Díaz, allegedly plotted to find information to discredit political rivals in Catalonia in 2014.

Leo Messi and his father testified this Thursday before Barcelona’s High Court. They are accused of having moved 4.1m EUR earned from the player’s image rights to tax havens between 2007 and 2009. In his statement, the FC Barcelona player assured that his life is “limited to playing football” and that he had “full confidence” in his father and the lawyers who managed his publicity contracts. This is the same statement that Messi gave in 2013, when he had to testify before the Court for the same case. Spain’s Tax Agency has requested 22 months in prison for each of them for having moved 4.1m EUR earned from publicity contracts to tax havens between 2007 and 2009. On the other hand, the public prosecutor is only accusing Messi’s father.

The judicial process for alleged fiscal fraud and money laundering against family members of the President of Catalonia between 1980 and 2003 Jordi Pujol continues. This Wednesday, Pujol testified before Spain's High Court, 'La Audiencia Nacional', and gave further details on his father’s legacy, some €4 million which it is alleged was kept in Andorra for 34 years without informing tax authorities. He insisted that his father, Florenci, left the sum for Jordi Pujol’s wife and children, not for him, due to the risk of retaliation for his political activities in the years after Franco’s death. The founder of the centre-right Catalan nationalist coalition CiU in the 1970s also set himself apart from some of his sons’ businesses and denied being a corrupt politician. His wife, Marta Ferrusola, refused to answer any questions from either the judge or the prosecution.