By Andrew Warshaw
July 7 – Lionel Messi has vowed to appeal and clear his name after being sensationally sentenced to 21 months in prison on three counts of tax fraud. Both Barcelona’s Argentine superstar and his father were handed the same jail term though it is unlikely they will serve time since custodial sentences are regularly suspended in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a term of less than two years.
However they would still effectively be under probation as well as having their reputations seriously tarnished. Hence both father and son will appeal according to reports quoting Messi’s lawyers.
The Barcelona court ruling Wednesday made global headlines such is the status of Messi who only last week announced he was quitting international football at the age of 29. The ruling found Messi and his father, Jorge, guilty of defrauding tax authorities of €4.1 million.The court also fined Messi €2 million and his father €1.5 million.
Tax inspectors testified during the trial that they found evidence that Messi’s father used companies in countries such as Uruguay, Switzerland and Belize to avoid paying taxes on income earned from image rights from 2007-09. Any appeal will now go to Spain’s Supreme Court.
Messi told the court during the four-day trial in early June that he trusted his father with his finances and “knew nothing” about how his wealth was managed.
But the state attorney representing tax authorities during the trial, Mario Maza, disputed that. “There is no deliberate ignorance here, it’s fraud and that’s all there is to it, because he didn’t want to pay his taxes,” he said. “It’s like a crime boss. At the very top is the bigwig who doesn’t want to know about the details.”
The court agreed, arguing in its ruling that Messi “had decided to remain in ignorance”.
“Despite all the opportunities available to the player to show interest in how his rights were managed, he did not,” the court added. “The information that the accused avoided having was, in reality, within his reach via trustworthy and accessible sources.”
Messi, who has held Spanish nationality since 2005, and his father had already paid €5 million to the tax authorities as a “corrective” measure after formal investigations were opened. And after the verdict, Barcelona issued a statement “giving all its support to Leo Messi and his father”.
“The club, in agreement with the government prosecution service, considers that the player, who has corrected his position with the Spanish tax office, is in no way criminally responsible with regards to the facts underlined in this case,” it added.
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