On Tuesday, the Madrid prosecutor's office filed a complaint against Real Madrid's Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, accusing him of taking advantage of a corporate structure to defraud the Spanish Treasury of 14.7 million euros.
In its complaint, the prosecutor's office accuses the player of "four crimes against the Public Treasury committed between 2011 and 2014," which constitute "tax fraud of 14,768,897.40 euros," according to a statement from the public ministry.
The prosecutor's office considers that Cristiano Ronaldo used "a corporate structure created in 2010 to hide from the tax authorities the income generated in Spain from image rights, which constitutes a 'voluntary' and 'conscious' non-compliance with his tax obligations in Spain," according to the same source.
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The complaint, based on the report sent to the prosecutor's office by the Spanish Tax Agency, considers that in the context of a contract with Real Madrid, which he signed in June 2009, Cristiano "simulated the transfer of his image rights to a company" located in the "British Virgin Islands and of which he was the sole partner.
This company in turn transferred the rights to another company "located in Ireland under the name of Multisports&Image Management LTD which 'effectively' managed and exploited the player's image rights," adds the note.
Therefore, the prosecutor's office considers that the first transfer "had as its sole purpose the interposition of a screen to hide from the Spanish tax authorities the totality of the income obtained by the reported person from the exploitation of his image," according to the same source.
Source: AFP