Messi and his father in the dock for tax fraud
GAVA (Spain): Lionel Messi and his father appeared before a Spanish judge to answer questions in a multi-million-euro tax fraud case yesterday.
Messi gave answers for around half an hour after his father Jorge Horacio Messi had been questioned. After they both left separately, Messi’s lawyer spoke outside the courthouse No. 3 in Gava, an easygoing coastal town just south of Barcelona near Messi’s residence.
“The Messi family has wanted that we act with transparency, clarity and with a sense of co-operation, and that is how things went today as well,” said Cristobal Martell, the lawyer of the Barcelona forward.
Martell said the hearing showed there was “a great willingness to normalise the situation” with Spain’s tax office.
A complaint lodged by a Spanish state prosecutor in June said Messi and his father tried to conceal earnings from the player’s image rights. ThecomplaintallegedtheArgentina international owed US$5.3mil (RM17.1mil) in back taxes from 2007, 2008 and 2009.
If found guilty, Messi and father could face a fine reaching 150% of the amount of back taxes.
In the complaint, state prosecutor Raquel Amado alleges that from 2006-09 Messi “obtained significant revenue derived from the transfer to third parties of his image rights, income which should have been taxed.”
The complaint says Messi “circumvented his tax obligations” by using shell companies in tax havens such as Belize and Uruguay. — AP