World-famous Colombian superstar Shakira is allegedly involved in a $14.7 million tax fraud case after a Spanish prosecutor asked for more than eight years in prison and a fine of nearly $23.51 million, according to Spanish media mogul El Pais.
The court will now need to decide on holding a trial and set a date.
The public ministry attributes to Shakira six crimes against public finances with two aggravating circumstances: One, due to the high amount of fraud and the other due to the "use of interposed legal persons," that is, companies in tax havens that allowed her to hide their income from the Treasury. The prosecutor has also requested that, at trial, Shakira and a total of 37 witnesses be questioned; some of them are expected to attend via videoconference.
The prosecutor's office concluded that, between 2012 and 2014, Shakira evaded the payment of taxes (IRPF and Patrimony) worth 14.5 million euros ($14.83 million). The thesis of the accusation lies in the circumstance that she had already started her relationship with the Barça player Gerard Pique and habitually resided in Barcelona in 2011 but maintained official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015.
Shakira has slammed the "complete violation of her rights" and "abusive methods" by the prosecutors and said 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."
Shakira was on the singing competition show between 2013 and 2014.
Shakira's defense team argues she moved to Spain full-time only in 2015 and has met all tax obligations.
She says she has paid 17.2 million euros to the Spanish tax authorities and she has "no debt to the treasury for many years."
