Shakira ‘considering admitting £13m tax fraud’ in ‘deal with prosecutors’ to dodge eight years in jail
SHAKIRA is reportedly considering admitting to £13million tax fraud in a “deal with prosecutors” to dodge eight years behind bars.
The 46-year-old singer is due to stand at her trial on Monday in Barcelona with the threat of a lengthy prison sentence hanging over her head.
State prosecutors announced they were seeking the jail term for the mum-of-two after charging her with six counts of tax fraud she allegedly committed in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
But this afternoon, Spanish newspaper El Mundo claimed she was finalising a deal to avoid a lengthy prison sentence.
It reported “everything was pointing” to the Waka Waka singer not having to do prison time.
El Mundo reported: “In the last few days Shakira’s lawyers have intensified their contact, both in person and remotely, with state prosecution representatives and contacts that represent the interest of Spain’s Tax Agency.
“It appears both sides will reach an agreement in which the artist will admit to her crime, will pay a high sum of money as a fine, and will receive a prison sentence of less than two years which she won’t have to serve because she has no existing criminal record in Spain.”
It cited sources close to Shakira as saying she insisted she had committed no wrongdoing but wanted to spare herself a long high-profile trial that could ruin her image.
There has not yet been any comment to the reports from the singer herself or prosecution representatives – and there is unlikely to be until Monday.
Any deal will have to be communicated to the three judges set to try Shakira before it is approved in open court.
She has claimed she was a resident in the Bahamas between the beginning of 2012 and the end of 2014 – and shouldn’t have been considered a Spanish resident for tax purposes, despite starting to date her ex Gerard Pique in 2010.
Many of the 117 witnesses due to testify will be asked about their knowledge of her life in Barcelona during the three key years before she registered as a full-time tax resident in Spain in 2015.
They include the Colombian artist’s ex-Argentinian boyfriend Antonio de la Rua, her chauffeur, hotel and restaurant workers and an employee at a beauty salon.
Zumba teachers prosecutors will allege came to the Catalan capital specifically to give Shakira classes are also set to testify on Monday.
The trial is scheduled to take place over 12 sessions on non-consecutive days at Barcelona’s Provincial Court, with the last one scheduled for December 14.
Spanish state prosecutors have already laid out the basis of their case against Shakira in a 15-page indictment submitted to an investigating magistrate.
In the written document they accuse the artist of living in Spain “on a regular basis” during the tax years 2012 to 2014.
First, at former footballer Gerard Pique’s Barcelona flat, and then at a mansion she bought with her former partner in Esplugues de Llobregat, near the Catalan capital.
They claim her absences from Spain for work and other reasons were “sporadic” apart from a a period of 61 days she spent in the States in 2012 when she was a coach on the US version of singing competition The Voice.
The indictment adds: “The accused spent 242 days in Spain in 2012, 212 days in 2013 and 243 days in 2014 and she was out of this country, to fulfil her professional commitments and for leisure, 124 days in 2012; 153 days in 2013 and 122 days in 2014.”
People who spend more than 183 days in a given calendar year in Spain are considered Spanish residents for tax purposes – and under the country’s tax rules are obliged to declare their worldwide earnings.
State prosecutors say Shakira, “knowing lived on a regular basis in Spain and remained in the country most of the year”.
They claim she decided to use an offshore shell company to hide her worldwide earnings and dodge income and wealth tax payments.
The singer carried out the alleged fraud by hiding behind companies presented as the beneficiaries of earnings that ended up in her pocket, her accusers allege.
As well as an eight-year prison sentence, prosecutors have also demanded a fine of nearly £21million for Shakira, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, if she is convicted of all six charges.
Tax inspectors reportedly spent more than a year checking up on the Hips Don’t Lie singer, who made headlines with a diss song in January targeting Pique and his new 24-year-old lover Clara Chia.
In the song, she claimed he had traded a Ferrari for a Twingo and a Rolex for a Casio.
The inspectors are known to have visited her favourite hairdressers in Barcelona and checked her social media to try to show she spent most of the three years in dispute in Spain.
A statement released by Shakira’s Barcelona-based publicists LLYC in November last year said: “Shakira is a taxpayer who has always shown impeccable tax conduct and has never had tax problems in any other jurisdiction.
“The singer relied on top advisors such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
“She never exceeded the 183 days of presence in Spain required to be a tax resident.
“With no solid evidence to support the charges against her, she has been fiercely persecuted in the criminal and media spheres using unacceptable methods to damage her reputation and force her to come to a settlement agreement.”
Before leaving Barcelona to start a new life with sons Milan and Sasha following her ugly split from Pique, Shakira delivered a stinging attack on the Spanish tax authorities.
She claimed she was being “persecuted” and accused the Spanish Treasury of using “unacceptable methods to damage her reputation and force her to come to a settlement agreement.”
She also insisted she had no intention of making any last-minute plea bargain deals and would go to trial.
But local reports earlier this week in Spain claimed two separate sets of talks about an out-of-court settlement had already taken place between the opposing sides that never came to fruition.
Earlier this year it emerged Shakira is also facing a separate tax probe in Spain, and is running separately to the case due to go to trial on Monday.
Officials confirmed in July a court near Barcelona had agreed to investigate her at the request of state prosecutors for suspected 2018 tax breaches.
The wealth tax in Spain is an annual tax payable on the total net value of assets held on December 31.
Spanish tax residents pay tax on their worldwide assets.
Shakira arrived in Barcelona last weekend from Miami ahead of her performance at the annual Latin Grammys in Seville on Thursday where she scooped up three awards.
Court officials in the Catalan capital said on Friday Shakira was scheduled to testify on Monday.
And if the trial does end up going ahead, her lawyers could ask the three judges set to decide her fate to allow her to take the stand after all the evidence against her has been presented.