Messi, and his father may, however, likely just go on probation.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
A Barcelona court sentenced Argentine footballer Lionel Messi to 21-month imprisonment and fined $2.2 million for tax fraud on Wednesday, reported Reuters.
His father Jorge Horacio Messi was also sentenced to 21 months jail term, with a 1.5 million Euro fine.
Messi and his father are unlikely to serve the term since under Spanish law, prison term less than two years for a non-violent criminal activity can be served under probation. They have five days to appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court.
The court had earlier found that both of them are guilty of three counts of tax fraud. According to the prosecution, Messi, and his father, defrauded the Spanish tax office of 4.2 million Euros by using companies set in tax heavens in Belize, Uruguay, and Switzerland. Between 2007 and 2009, he evaded the tax on his income from his image rights.
During the trial, Messi had maintained that he had signed many documents without reading the content and didn’t know of any wrongdoing. He also said that he approached a notary to set up a company to manage his financial transactions, but didn’t know what was going on.
In 2013, the Spanish revenue service had accepted the same argument made by the player and set him free of any charges. But, the state prosecutor decided to continue with the case in 2014 leading to the present verdict.
“(His) avoidable ignorance, which was derived from indifference, is not an error, and it does not remove responsibility,” the presiding judge, Mercedes Armas Galve, wrote in the statement.
“The information that the accused avoided having was, in reality, within his reach via trustworthy and accessible sources,” Galve added.
Messi had paid about 5 million Euros to the tax authorities as arrears and penalty to after the authorities started the investigation.
Barcelona football club issued a statement on Wednesday in support of their star player.
“FC Barcelona gives all its support to Leo Messi and his father with relation to the sentence for tax evasion handed out by the Provincial Court in Barcelona today,” the statement read.
“FC Barcelona continues to be at the disposal of Leo Messi and his family to support him in whatever action he decides to take in defense of his honesty and his legal interests,” it added.
The five-time winner of the World player of the year award had recently announced his retirement from the Argentine team after the team lost to Chile in Euro Cup final match.