Argentine footballer Lionel Messi and his father Jorge Horacio Messi have been sentenced by a Barcelona court to 21 months in prison for tax fraud, writes La Vanguardia. Messi, who plays for Barcelona, and his father, his manager and coach, according to the court, did not pay income taxes in 2007, 2008 and 2009. For each year, the court assigned them seven months in prison. The court agreed with the prosecutor’s office that they owed the treasury about 4.1 million euros. The publication clarifies that if the term specified in the verdict for such violations does not exceed two years, the convicts will not have to actually serve it.
The trial of the footballer took place in June. On June 2, Messi said in court that he did not read the contracts he signed and that his father was in charge of his affairs. Messi Sr. argued that he did not know enough about the Spanish tax system to organize a fraudulent scheme, and shifted the responsibility to the consultants he hired.
The prosecutor’s office filed a complaint against both Messis in 2013. The footballer and his father were accused of tax evasion in the amount of 4.1 million euros on the proceeds of the player’s advertising contracts in the amount of 10.1 million euros in 2007-2009. The athlete had contracts with Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Kuwait Food. According to the investigation, Messi’s father created offshore companies in Belize and Uruguay, when the footballer was still a minor, and transferred money there. Lionel Messi has already paid the tax office 5 million euros in order to “pay for the damage,” wrote La Vanguardia in October 2015. In early October, the Barcelona prosecutor’s office dropped charges against the striker, but the court rejected her petition to bring charges against the player’s father only.
The prosecutor demanded 22 months in prison for Messi, 18 months for his father and a fine of 3 million euros.
Messi’s revenues for 2015 amounted to 74 million euros, which is 9 million euros more than a year earlier. France Football wrote in April that he ranks first in the list of the highest paid football players in the world. In second place at that time was the forward of the Portuguese national team and Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo (67.4 million), the Brazilian national team striker Neymar (43.5 million) closed the top three. France Football provided figures based on pre-tax player salaries, sponsorship contracts and bonuses.
Messi’s name was also mentioned in the documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which helped its clients set up offshore companies. The documents were reviewed and released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in cooperation with hundreds of news services and newspapers in April 2016. They, in particular, said that Messi and his father owned Mega Star Enterprises in Panama.
Lionel Messi obtained Spanish citizenship in 2005. Following Argentina’s defeat to the Chileans in the 2016 America’s Cup Final, he announced that he had decided not to play for the national team anymore. He is not going to leave Barcelona and football yet.
Which football player has evaded taxes
.