Barcelona’s Lional Messi and his father will stand trial for tax fraud, a court in Spain ruled Thursday.
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However, the public prosecutor this week recommended a jail sentence of 18 months and fines of more than 2 million euros for Jorge Messi in the tax fraud case. Even a 22-month sentece has been requested by the prosecutor’s office.
Barca’s statement added: “FC Barcelona has expressed its affection and solidarity to Leo Messi and his family in such a peculiar situation”.
The club had published this statement: “The club will continue to give its judicial, fiscal and administrative support to the family in this process”. Lionel Messi is said to have “fully and blindly” trusted his father in his financial business.
The Messis made a voluntary “corrective payment” in August 2013 equal to the alleged unpaid taxes plus interest.
The 28-year-old is out now with a knee injury which is keeping him out of World Cup qualifying matches for Argentina and domestic and European matches with Barcelona. The El Pais newspaper notes that his lawyers made an argument, stating, “the player had never devoted a minute of his life to reading, studying or analyzing” contracts.
It also said he could have approved the creation of a web of shell companies which were allegedly used to evade taxes on income from image rights.
This comes just two days after prosecutors cleared Messi of any wrong-doing after being led to believe he had no knowledge of the fraud.
Spain has recently been cracking down on tax evasion as part of its fight to fix the country’s public finances after a prolonged recession triggered by the collapse of its once-booming real estate sector.
Since then, Messi has represented Barcelona on 492 occasions, with only Victor Valdes, Migueli, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez ahead of him in terms of appearances.
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