Shakira ordered to stand trial in Spain over ‘£12m tax fraud’ case in which the Colombian pop star faces EIGHT YEARS in jail if convicted
- Pop star Shakira said she faces eight years in jail for alleged £12m fraud
- They accuse her of evading taxes between 2012 and 2014 while living in Barcelona
- The Spanish judge has ordered her to stand trial, although no trial date has been set.
Shakira (pictured from Mexico this week) faces up to eight years in jail in Spain for allegedly evading £12 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014
A Spanish judge has told pop star Shakira she will go on trial for alleged €14.5m (£12.9m) tax fraud.
The 45-year-old woman, whose breakup with Barcelona soccer star Gerard Pique made headlines earlier this year, was first warned in July that she could be jailed for up to eight years after being charged with six counts of fraud. fiscal.
But today it became known that a judge of a court of instruction in Esplugues de Llobregat, near Barcelona, formally ordered that the singer be tried, in a ruling that ends his long criminal investigation and will see the Colombian pop star take the stand in court.
The decision follows the mother-of-two’s confirmation that she rejected an out-of-court settlement believed to have involved her admitting wrongdoing after she was accused of defrauding the Spanish treasury over a three-year period between 2012 and 2014.
He has already paid the six-figure sum that the Spanish treasury claims he defrauded along with interest believed to be €3m (£2.67m).
But state prosecutors want Shakira to receive an eight-year prison sentence if she is convicted of the charges at trial.
A date for the trial has not yet been set, but it is expected to take place in the coming months.
Colombian singer Shakira poses at the 75th Cannes Film Festival – Screening of the film “Elvis” Out of Competition – Cannes, France, May 25, 2022
The indictment was presented earlier this year before the Court of Instruction Number Two of Esplugues de Llobregat, which has been investigating the singer.
Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, is accused of pretending to live abroad and using a complex existing offshore corporate structure to avoid meeting her tax obligations from 2012 to 2014 despite having entered into a relationship with the former Man defender. United Piqué in 2011 and move to Barcelona. .
The artist, previously a tax resident in the Bahamas, only registered as a full tax resident in Spain in 2015.
Official residents in Spain pay Spanish taxes on their worldwide income.
People who have spent more than 183 days in a given calendar year in Spain are considered residents in Spain for tax purposes.
Treasury inspectors spent more than a year monitoring Shakira, including visiting her favorite hairdresser in Barcelona and reviewing her social networks to try to prove that she spent most of the three years in dispute in Spain.
They concluded that he had spent 242 days in Spain in 2012, 212 days in 2013 and 243 days in the country in 2014.
The report presented by the prosecution along with his criminal complaint alleged that the time he was outside of Spain were “sporadic absences” linked to work commitments.
Shakira has denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, her public relations firm Llorente y Cuenca said in a statement after she was indicted: “She believes in her innocence and has chosen to leave the matter in the hands of the law.”
The alleged fraud occurred around the time that Shakira moved to Barcelona to live with her partner, Gerard Piqué, who plays soccer in the city.
The singer broke her silence after her breakup with soccer player Gerard Piqué in a recent interview with Elle magazine, saying that music is like her ‘therapy’ during her ‘darkest hours’.
The singer and Gerard Piqué announced they had split in May after 11 years together amid unconfirmed reports that the footballer had cheated on the Colombian.
Now he has a new girlfriend, a 23-year-old Shakira lookalike named Clara Chia.
The former couple is said to have spent the last few months negotiating the future of their two children because Shakira wants to move to Miami with them.
The singer broke her silence after their split in a recent interview with Elle magazine, saying that music is like her ‘therapy’ during her ‘darkest hours’.
Asked how he managed not to be “together” with Pique, whom he met in 2010, he said: “I think those details are too private to share, at least at the moment, everything is so raw and new.”
“I can only say that I put everything I had into this relationship and into my family.”
