tax evasion

'El Mundo' newspaper reveals report to National Court investigating corruption allegations against former Catalan president

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.  

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.