Football star Lionel Messi gets jail for tax fraud
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By Lee Han-soo
World-famous footballer Lionel Messi was sentenced to 21 months’ jail Wednesday on tax fraud charges.
Messi and his father, Jorge Messi, were convicted of defrauding the Spanish tax office of $4.5 million by evading tax on money earned from selling Messi’s image rights from 2007 to 2009. The father received the same sentence.
The Argentine player was charged with concealing the earnings through tax havens in Belize and Uruguay.
Both men denied the charges.
"I was playing football, I knew nothing," Messi said on June 2. "I only worried about playing football."
But Messi and his father are unlikely to serve their prison sentences because Spanish law dictates that prison terms of less than two years can be served as probation.
In August 2013, Messi was found guilty of three counts of tax fraud. The family made a voluntary $5.5 million “corrective payment” -- equivalent to the alleged unpaid tax and interest.
The latest sentence can be appealed at the Spanish High Court.