Spanish prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo for defrauding €14.7M between 2011 and 2014. In the text, they said that the Portuguese player created a business structure to hide the money from the Spanish Tax authorities. He’s accused of hiding his image rights income in those years.
So, the prosecutor says that the player failed “voluntary” to hide this money from the authorities. They presented a report and he was accused of four different counts for tax fraud, including 14.768.897 €.
Real Madrid have declined to comment the report, whereas Cristiano Ronaldo said this is an “injustice”. According to the prosecutor office, the Real Madrid player defrauded 1.4 million euros in 2011, 1.7 million euros in 2012, 3.2 million euros in 2013 and 8.5 million euros in 2014.
The issue started in December 2008, when he ceded his image rights to the company Tollin Associates Ltd, with address in the Virgin Islands, a tax haven country. The prosecutor thinks this movement was very suspicious: “Ceding image rights to (Tollin Associates) was completely unnecessary and it’s only purpose was to create a screen to conceal the totality of his image rights income from the Spanish tax authorities”.
In their statement, the prosecutor office also names Leo Messi, who faces a 21-month prison sentence for defrauding €4.1M on image rights. Neymar has also problems with the Spanish Justice as he’s been investigated for corruption in his transfer from Santos to FC Barcelona.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now in Russia preparing with his national team the Confederations Cup. The Portuguese player has always said he’s very calm about these accusations because he has always paid his taxes in Spain. Actually, after winning La Liga title in Málaga, he said that many people accused him of being a “criminal”, but he’s not such a person.
