After the Spanish Treasury accused Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father for an alleged breach of tributary obligations, the football player has paid the 5 million Euro they owed, and will not have to pay a fine.
Spain's fiscal authorities summoned the player and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, to declare on September 17, to answer for the 4.1 million euros they didn't declare between 2007, 2008 and 2009, reported CNN in July.
CNN reported that the forward paid 10 million euros in complementary declarations corresponding to 2010 and 2011, when the scandal was first revealed.
According to first reports, 5 million euros were deposited by Messi's father on August 14 were for "fees and interests."
Lawyers for the state of Barcelona solicited a fine as a result of these proceedings, however, the judge in charge of the investigation in Gava, a Barcelona municipality, rejected the imposition of the fine on Messi. According to the judge, "there are no rational motives to believe that" Lionel Messi and his father "will carry out during the penal process any act relating to withdrawing assets from their patrimony," El Comercio reported.
The Barcelona prosecutor of economic crimes told the media that he estimates that the Barcelona footballer simulated the transfer of his image rights to instrumental societies located in "fiscal paradise" countries like Belize and Uruguay. Messi signed complementary license contracts, of agency or services rendered with these and other instrumental companies located in convenient places like the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and thus carried out the 4 million euros fiscal fraud, El Comercio reported.
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