Messi's father facing jail and £1.5million fine over tax fraud

Lionel Messi surveys the pitch at the Etihad

SPAIN'S public prosecutor has recommended a jail sentence totalling 18 months and fines of more than £1.5million for Lionel Messi's father Jorge in a tax fraud case.

 

The prosecutor reiterated that Messi himself should not have to face charges for allegedly defrauding the state of £3.1m for the years 2007-2009 because his father was in charge of his finances.

However, the court overseeing the case already rejected Messi's appeal last year and ruled that he could have approved the creation of a web of shell companies that were apparently used to evade taxes due on income from his image rights.

 

Revenue had been hidden using a web of shell companies in Uruguay, Belize, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, according to the prosecutor's office.

Messi and his father paid £3.7m to the tax authorities as a "corrective payment" after they were formally charged in June 2013.

Lionel Messi has been resident in Barcelona since 2000 and gained Spanish citizenship in 2005. He is 10th on Forbes Magazine's list of the world's highest-earning athletes over the past decade with income of £260m.

 

Lionel Messi will not face charges as courts decided his father was in charge of his finances