Barcelona Footballer Lionel Messi, Found Guilty Of Corruption
Lionel Messi and his father in court denied fraud but their defence was rejected by the court
Barcelona football superstar Lionel Messi, and his father Jorge Messi,
have been given a suspended jail sentence of 21 months for tax fraud
after both were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud in Wednesday’s
ruling by a Barcelona court.
Both men were charged with defrauding Spain of
€4.1m (£3.5m; $4.5m)
between 2007 and 2009. This is in addition to facing millions of Euros
in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings
from image rights. The court ordered Mr. Messi to pay a fine of €2m
while his father was fined to the sum of €1.5m.
During the trial, Lionel Messi claimed he “knew nothing” about the
management of his financial affairs, saying he was “playing football.”
"I was playing football, I knew nothing," he said.
Messi, 28, said he signed documents without reading them because he trusted his father and the advisers responsible for managing his finances."I only worried about playing football," he told the judge.
 |
| 'I signed what he told me to sign because I trusted my father,' Lionel Messi told the court |
'Corrective payment'
"The sentence is not correct and we are confident the appeal will show the defence was right," Messi's lawyers said in a statement several hours after the guilty verdict was delivered.The lawyers said that "there is a good chance that the appeal will succeed", adding that Messi had always acted in good faith.
The sentence can be appealed against via the Spanish supreme court.
The footballer and his father were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud.
As well as the jail terms, Messi and Jorge were also fined. They made a voluntary €5m "corrective payment", equal to the alleged unpaid tax plus interest, in August 2013.
Messi earns an estimated €36m per year at Barcelona, and his income of about €315m in the past decade has placed him 10th of Forbes magazine's list of the highest-earning athletes in the world.
Sahara Reporters,BBC News.
Post a Comment