SHAKIRA IN SPANISH COURT, TO FACE UPTO 8YEARS JAIL TERM.
Written by AIGBOKHAEBHO OKHUELEIGBE on July 29, 2022
Prosecutors in Barcelona said Friday that they would seek a prison sentence of more than eight years against global music superstar Shakira, for she rejecting a plea deal on accusations of tax evasion.
Shakira’s defence team argues she moved to Spain full time only in 2015 and has met all tax obligations.
Prosecutors are demanding a fine of nearly €24 million on the 45-year-old former partner to FC Barcelona and Spanish Star Gerard Pique.
The three-time Grammy award winner is accused of defrauding the Spanish tax office out of €14.5 million ($14.7 million) on income earned between 2012 and 2014.
The court will now need to decide on holding a trial and set a new date.
Prosecutors are saying that Shakira moved to Spain in 2011 when her relationship with Gerard Piqué became public but maintained official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015.
She has slammed it as a “complete violation of her rights” and “abusive methods” by the prosecutors and say they were “insisting on claiming money earned during my international tours and the show ‘The Voice’” on which she was a judge in the United States, when she was “not yet resident in Spain”.
The “Hips Don’t Lie” crooner claims she has paid €17.2 million to the Spanish tax authorities and she has “no debt to the treasury for many years”.
A Barcelona court in May dismissed an appeal from the singer to drop the charges.
Shakira, who has sold over 60 million albums, rejected a plea deal on Wednesday, saying in a statement through her lawyers that she was “absolutely certain of her innocence” and had decided to let the case go to court, “confident” that her innocence would be proven.
