Barcelona: A Spanish judge has approved a trial for Colombian pop singer Shakira on charges of tax fraud.
Spanish prosecutors accused the entertainer in 2018 of failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($21.6 million) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014. Prosecutors are seeking an eight-year prison sentence and a hefty fine if she is found guilty of tax evasion.
Shakira denies she committed tax fraud.Credit:AP
Shakira, 45, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and rejected a deal with authorities to avoid going to trial. Her public relations firm has said that she has already paid all that she owed and an additional 3 million euros ($4.5 million) in interest.
The singer said she was leading a “nomadic life” because of her work.
“I have to fight for what I believe because these are false accusations,” the Hips Don’t Lie singer told Elle magazine in an interview published online in the United States on Wednesday and due to run in its October print edition. “I owe zero to them.”
The court based in the town of Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona said that Shakira will face six counts of tax fraud. The date for the trial has yet to be set.
The case hinges on where Shakira lived during 2012-14.
The prosecutor’s document, seen by Reuters, asserts that Shakira spent more than half of each year in Spain between 2012 and 2014, and in May 2012 bought a family home in Barcelona. In July last year, a Spanish judge said he had seen “sufficient evidence” for Shakira to face trial. A second judge rejected her appeal against the decision in May.
Shakira, who in July rejected a deal with the prosecutor to settle the case, says the authorities only came after her “with their eyes on the prize” when they found out she was dating FC Barcelona soccer player Gerard Pique, who is Spanish.
The couple, who have two children, used to live together in Barcelona but recently ended their 11-year relationship.
“While Gerard and I were dating, I was on a world tour. I spent more than 240 days outside of Spain, so there was no way I qualified as a resident,” she said.
“The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It’s clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what,” the singer claimed.
Shakira added that she had already paid what the Spanish tax office said she owed before they filed a lawsuit.
She said she was confident that she had behaved correctly and transparently from the beginning, suggesting the Spanish authorities “resorted to a salacious press campaign” to damage her reputation.
The combination of her recent separation from Pique, a custody battle for their two children, the illness of her father and “fighting on different fronts” meant she was facing “probably the darkest hour of my life,” the singer said.
Spain has cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the past decade for not paying their full due in taxes. They were found guilty of evasion but both avoided prison time thanks to a provision that allows a judge to waive sentences under two years in length for first-time offenders.
Reuters
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
Most Viewed in World
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
