After the investigating court stopped another probe into the Colombian singer’s finances,.Shakira avoided more charges related to tax fraud in Spain.
In exchange for a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of 7,000,000 euros, one day before her trial was to begin in November of 2023, Shakira settled a tax fraud case where the superstar singer was accused of failing to pay 14,500,000 euros based on the her 2012 thru 2014 income.
Prior to the first case being settled, in July of last year Spanish prosecutors opened an additional investigation of additional tax fraud against the Colombian musician that occurred in 2018. However, on Thursday (5.09) a Spanish investigative magistrate confirmed that there wasn’t “sufficient evidence” to charge Shakira with additional charges, the Associated Press reports.
Of the potential fiscal crime the court stated “There is no indication that can prove that Shakira Isabel M. R. had consciously and voluntarily omitted information and documentation with tax significance” and if prosecutors do not appeal the ruling, the matter will be considered closed.
If convicted at the first trial, Shakira, who faced up to eight years in prison, had denied all the allegations, calling them “false accusations” and reiterating that she “didn’t spend 183 days per year” in Spain those years because she was “busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world.”
The tax fraud charges stemmed from the claim that Shakira spent more than half the year in Spain every year between 2012 and 2014 despite listing her residence as the Bahamas during her time in Europe. According to Spanish tax law, anyone living in the country for more than six months is considered a resident and must pay taxes.
After moving to Miami following her decade-long relationship split in 2022 with Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, in an October 2022 interview with Elle, Shakira, who stated “I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So as of today, I owe zero to them.”
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Alejandro Bárcenas