Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, on Tuesday, was accused of a €14.7 million tax evasion through offshore companies, the public prosecutor’s office in Madrid announced.
The Portuguese footballer was found guilty of “four crimes against the public treasury between 2011-’14... which involves tax fraud of €14,768,897 ($16.5 million, £12.9 million)“, the office said in a statement.
“The accused took advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities, which is a ‘voluntary’ and ‘conscious’ breach of his fiscal obligations in Spain,” it said.
Prosecutors accuse the 32-year-old Portugal forward, who is the world’s highest paid athlete according to Forbes magazine, of evading tax via two companies based in the British Virgin Islands and Ireland.
Ronaldo is the latest football star to fall foul of Spanish tax authorities. Three weeks ago, Ronaldo’s media-build professional rival, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were found guilty of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on €4.16 million earned from the Argentine’s image rights from 2007-’09.
Both Messi and his father were handed with a 21-month jail sentence by the Supreme Court in Spain. Reports have stated that it is likely to be suspended as is common in in the Iberian country for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a sentence of less than two years.
Meanwhile, Barca’s Argentine defender Javier Mascherano also agreed a one-year suspended sentence with authorities for tax fraud last year.
Ronaldo had recently completed a sterling season with Los Blancos, firing them to the Spanish La Liga and the UEFA Champions League double.
He scored two goals in the final of the elite European competition to help sink Juventus 4-1, and help his side become the first team to defend Champions League during the competition’s 25 year-old history.