Soccer star Lionel Messi gets suspended sentence for tax fraud
Lionel Messi. Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com
A court in Barcelona has given soccer star Lionel Messi and his father suspended sentences of 21 months in prison for tax fraud.
Messi and his father, Jorge, were sentenced for using shell companies to avoid taxes on income from Messi’s image rights, report the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). Both men were also fined; Messi will have to pay about $2.2 million and his father about $1.7 million.
They have already paid the back taxes and interest.
Lionel Messi had testified he didn’t know he was doing anything wrong and that his father controlled his financial affairs. Messi’s father had said a legal adviser told him the practice was legal.
In Spain, sentences of less than two years in prison for first offenders are suspended sentences that don’t require prison time.
