Shakira pays 6.6M euros in another Spain tax fraud case

Colombian superstar Shakira has paid 6.6 million euros ($7.2 million) to a Spanish court investigating her for unpaid taxes, her agent said Friday, just days after she reached a deal to avoid trial in another tax case.

Spanish prosecutors in July opened a second case against the 46-year-old singer, accusing her of using a network of companies, some of them based in tax havens, to cheat Spain's tax office out of some 6.6 million euros in 2018, including interest and adjustments.

Shakira paid the court in August, the agency that represents her told AFP, confirming a report in daily newspaper El Periodico.

The 6.6-million-euro payment does not imply either the singer's guilt or innocence in the case, but is "another demonstration of her willingness to repay her possible debts to the Spanish tax authorities", the newspaper said.

Separately, the "Hips Don't Lie" singer Monday reached a last-minute settlement with Spanish prosecutors to avoid trial for tax fraud on income she earned between 2012 and 2014.

As part of that deal Shakira agreed to pay a fine of 7.3 million euros, equal to 50 percent of the amount of unpaid tax.

She had already paid 17.45 million euros to the Spanish tax authorities to settle her situation in this case.

The singer, who had previously rejected a deal offered by prosecutors, said in a statement she had settled "with the best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight".

Shakira moved to Miami with her two sons in April following her split from former FC Barcelona star defender Gerard Pique.

Agence France-Presse

Trump ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort jailed for 43 more months

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort, already facing 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud, was sentenced on Wednesday to an additional 43 months in prison on conspiracy charges.

"The defendant is not public enemy number one," US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in delivering the sentence in a hushed courtroom.

"But he is not a victim either," Jackson said, adding that the veteran Republican lobbyist had shown little remorse and had lied repeatedly.

Manafort's case is the highest-profile yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ronaldo faces multi-million tax fraud fine in Madrid court

Cristiano Ronaldo is returning to Madrid for a court date on Tuesday in which he could be fined 18.8 million euros ($21.4 million) for tax fraud as part of a deal reached with the Spanish taxman.

As part of an agreement arranged in June with the former Real Madrid hero's lawyers, prosecutors are also asking that the Portuguese attacker, who last summer left the Spanish capital for Italian champions Juventus, be handed a 23-month jail sentence.

However, Ronaldo would not spend a day in prison as sentences of up to 2 years are generally not enforced in Spain for first-time offenders in non-violent crimes.

The hearing, due to start at 9:50 a.m. (0850 GMT), is expected to last just a few minutes as the deal is officially presented to the judge.

He in turn will give the final sentence on Tuesday or the coming days, according to a spokesman for the court in northern Madrid.

Ronaldo will not be given special treatment when he arrives and will have to climb up the courthouse steps amid a likely media scrum despite the 5-time Ballon d'Or winner's lawyers asking he be allowed to enter the building by car to avoid the spotlight.

The court president refused the request, saying that despite his "great fame," he wouldn't "compromise security" at the building, according to a court document.

His request to appear via videoconference was also denied.

Offshore companies

Madrid prosecutors opened a probe into Ronaldo in June 2017 and he was questioned in July that same year.

"I have never hidden anything, nor have I had the intention of evading taxes," he told the court then, according to a statement from the sports agency which represents him, Gestifute.

Prosecutors accuse him of having used companies in low-tax foreign jurisdictions -- notably the British Virgin Islands and Ireland -- to avoid having to pay the tax due in Spain on his image rights between 2011 and 2014.

His lawyers said there had been a difference in interpretation of what was and was not taxable in Spain.

The deal between Spain's taxman and his lawyers has allowed Ronaldo to avoid having to sit through a long trial that could have damaged his image and seen him handed a heftier sentence.

Ronaldo is not the only footballer to have fallen foul of Spain's tax authorities. 

Barcelona's Lionel Messi, once Ronaldo's big La Liga rival, paid a 2-million-euro fine in 2016 in his own tax wrangle and received a 21-month jail term.

The prison sentence was later reduced to a further fine of 252,000 euros, equivalent to 400 euros per day of the original term.

Accused of rape in US

But Ronaldo's legal wrangles won't be over after a probe was opened in the United States in October after a former American model accused him of raping her in Las Vegas in 2009.

Police in the western US city recently asked Italian authorities for a DNA sample from the footballer.

Ronaldo has always strenuously denied the accusations.

In a New Year's Eve interview with Portuguese sports daily Record, he said he had a "calm conscience" and was "confident that everything will very soon be clarified."

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Spain's Princess Cristina to face tax fraud trial

MADRID - Cristina de Borbon, sister of Spain's King Felipe VI, will stand trial on charges of tax fraud, the first Spanish royal to face prosecution in court.

Her father Juan Carlos abdicated in June after a series of scandals including an investigation into the affairs of Princess Cristina's husband, former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin, who is accused of embezzling public funds.

Princess Cristina, 49, and Urdangarin are among 17 people ordered to stand trial in the case involving his Noos Foundation charity, the High Court of the Balearic Islands said on Monday.

Cristina and her husband have both denied any wrongdoing.

Urdangarin has been charged with breach of legal duty, embezzling public funds, fraud, influence-peddling and money-laundering. The princess is accused of two tax crimes.

The couple have been ordered to deposit funds with the court to cover possible liabilities - 2.6 million euros ($3.2 million) in the case of Cristina, and nearly 15 million for Urdanganrin.

They now have 20 days to deposit the money, according to a written court ruling, or face having assets seized.

King Felipe is riding high in opinion polls and has tried to modernize the monarchy, including taking rights and duties away from his two sisters, who are no longer formally part of the royal family.

Cristina remains sixth in line to the throne.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Lionel Messi to be prosecuted for tax fraud

MADRID - A Spanish court will push ahead with the process of prosecuting Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi for alleged tax evasion despite a recommendation from the public prosecutor the charges be dismissed.

The 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.

However, the court in Barcelona has decided that Lionel 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 judge in the case ruled that the case against both Messis should continue, according to a statement published on Monday.

Messi and his father were accused last year of defrauding the Spanish state of more than 4 million euros ($5.4 million) by filing false returns for the years 2006 to 2009. They have denied wrongdoing.

One of the world's highest-paid athletes, Messi earns just over $40 million a season in salary and bonuses, according to Forbes magazine, as well as about $23 million from sponsors.

The magazine has him as the fourth top-earning athlete behind boxer Floyd Mayweather, Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and basketball player LeBron James.

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Dolce and Gabbana sentenced in Italian tax-fraud case

MILAN - Fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were each given a reduced, suspended sentence of 18 months in jail on Wednesday for a conviction on charges of hiding hundreds of millions of euros from Italian tax authorities.

Italy's appeals court upheld a verdict issued last June against the pair, who are as famous as the stars they dress, on charges of using Luxembourg holding company Gado to avoid paying taxes on royalties of about 1 billion euros ($1.38 billion).

The sentence was reduced from 20 months because the statute of limitations applied to certain facts in the case.

A lawyer for Dolce and Gabbana, who have always denied any wrongdoing, said they would appeal the decision. "I am speechless. We are all shocked. The judgement is inexplicable and we will appeal," Massimo Dinoia said after the judgement.

A Milan prosecutor had asked the court in March to clear the pair, who - in a protest last year at being "pilloried" - closed the Milan shops where they sell clothes and accessories inspired by Dolce's native Sicily.

The previous decision, by a lower court, handed the duo suspended jail sentences of 20 months each and imposed a fine of up to 10 million euros over avoidance of the payments in Italy, where corporate taxes are among the highest in Europe.

The case stems from an investigation that began in 2008 when Italian tax authorities stepped up their fight against tax evasion as a global financial crisis began to bite.

Fashion companies have fallen under the scrutiny of Italy's tax authorities partly due to the fact the sector has performed well during the country's longest recession since World War Two.

"Luxury is one of the few sectors to have done well in recent years," said a partner specialising in tax at Grant Thornton in Milan who declined to be named.

"It is easier to go and ask for money where there is money as opposed to going to a troubled sector."

The cases rarely come to court, however.

Giorgio Armani paid 270 million euros to tax authorities in early April to settle a dispute over payments from the group's subsidiaries abroad.

Prada Holding, which controls Prada, paid a reported 400-420 million euros to settle taxes in Italy after completing a process of voluntary disclosure in December.

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Berlusconi sentenced to jail in wiretap trial

MILAN - An Italian court sentenced ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday to one year in jail over the publication by his family's newspaper of a transcript of a leaked wiretap connected to a banking scandal in 2006.

Italian justice system rules mean that the 76-year-old media billionaire would not have to serve any jail time until the appeals process has been exhausted, and a higher court may still overturn the ruling.

It came in the middle of a complex political impasse arising from an inconclusive election last week that left no party able to form a government on its own, although Berlusconi's centre-right formation emerged as the second strongest in parliament.

Berlusconi is in the middle of a series of trials, with separate cases over charges of tax fraud and paying for sex with an underage prostitute due to wind up this month.

He has denied any wrongdoing in the case and the verdict was immediately criticised by his lawyer Piero Longo, who has frequently criticised Milan judges over the long series of trials Berlusconi has faced over the years.

"I'm not surprised, given that it's Milan and it has to do with Berlusconi," he told reporters after the verdict.

"But I am concerned and shocked because I'm quite convinced that the charges against Berlusconi were weak and contradictory and even completely lacking."

Berlusconi's brother Paolo, publisher of the family-owned Il Giornale daily, was sentenced to two years and three months over the same case, which centred on confidential wiretap transcripts related to a bank takeover which appeared in the newspaper.

The court also awarded 80,000 euros in damages to Piero Fassino, who was head of the main centre-left party at the time of the incident and whose remarks were caught on the wiretap and published in the newspaper.

Fassino asserted that Il Giornale, a right-wing newspaper, published the transcripts shortly before the 2006 election to create the impression that Fassino had exercised improper pressure in the attempted takeover of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro by insurer Unipol in 2005.

Late on Wednesday, Italy's highest appeals court upheld a ruling clearing Berlusconi of tax fraud in connection with his Mediatrade broadcasting rights firm.

The decision cleared Berlusconi of accusations that Mediatrade, the broadcast rights unit of his Mediaset group, acquired film and television rights at inflated prices to evade 10 million euros ($13 million) in taxes in 2004.

His trial on charges of paying for sex with a juvenile prostitute is expected to wind up on March 18 while a separate trial over broadcast rights is expected to conclude on March 23.

Despite his relative success in the election, Berlusconi's prospects of a return to government have been held back by the refusal of centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to accept a "grand coalition" with his longstanding rivals.

source: abs-cbnnews.com