Lionel Messi is to face court trial for alleged tax evasion after a Spanish court rejected the Barcelona forward's appeal against his prosecution.
Messi and his father have been accused of defrauding the Spanish state of more than €4 million between 2007 and 2009.
Spain's public prosecutor argued in June that Messi's father Jorge was responsible for the family's finances and not the four-times World Player of the Year.
A court in Barcelona decided, however, Messi could have known about and approved the creation of a web of shell companies that were allegedly used to evade taxes due on income from image rights.
The appeal against that decision has been rejected, according to court documents published on Friday.
"In this type of crime, it is not necessary for someone to have complete knowledge of all the accounting and business operations nor the exact quantity, rather it is sufficient to be aware of the designs to commit fraud and consent to them," the judge ruled.
The income relates to Messi's image rights, including deals with Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola and Proctor and Gamble.
They have denied wrongdoing.
No comments:
Post a Comment