“He is my father and it obviously never crossed my mind that he would fool me or disappoint me so I signed because he told me to, because I trusted him, and as I said before, the lawyers told us to do it that way”, he also said.
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Barcelona forward Messi’s defence lawyers want both the five-time World Player of the Year and his father to be absolved.
The four-day trial ended Friday in Barcelona with both prosecutors contending that Messi’s father, Jorge Horacio Messi, was the main person responsible for defrauding Spain’s tax authority of 4.1 million euros ($4.5 million) from 2007-09.
“I knew nothing about the money”.
“The fraud, carried out through the creation of a company in Uruguay and the use of two others in Switzerland and Britain, was the father’s decision”, Amado said.
Prosecutors contend Messi and his father, aiming to lower their Spanish tax bill, sought to manage the player’s lucrative income from image rights through shell companies set up overseas.
“The prosecutors have called for 22-month jail sentences for both accused, but it is very unlikely that this will happen even should they be found guilty”. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, right, and his father Jorge Horacio Messi sit in court in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday June 2, 2016.
Under Spanish law, a defendant is not obliged to attend the full trial if prosecutors seek a jail sentence of less than two years – as is the case here.
Messi had on Thursday admitted in court that he signed many documents without reading their contents.
The trial comes amid mounting global scrutiny of how the rich manage their incomes, with governments looking at information released in leaked legal documents dubbed the Panama Papers.
The court heard during the week that Messi had signed away all his image rights to an overseas company earlier in his career for a nominal amount, and Maza said they should have asked more questions if they did not understand what was happening.
Messi is due to represent Argentina in the first match of their Copa America Centenario campaign against 2015 victor Chile in California on Monday.
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The trial is centered on alleged unlawful activities of Messi’s father, but authorities said the player knew enough to also be named in the case.
