Shakira faces up 8 years in prison if convicted of tax fraud

Shakira faces up 8 years in prison! In a petition submitted to the court, Spain’s public prosecutor is requesting that Colombian pop star Shakira to be sentenced to eight years in prison if she is convicted at her upcoming trial for tax fraud worth 14.5 million euros.

Shakira is accused of delaying the payment of 14.5 million euros ($15 million) in taxes to the Spanish government between 2012 and 2014. Prosecutors said they will also seek a $24 million fine. Shakira has rejected the prosecution’s settlement initiative, opting for a trial instead, but no date has been set for plea hearings yet.

In the latest legal documents, prosecutors revealed six charges against Shakira after she rejected a settlement deal earlier this week. According to the Spanish newspaper El Pas, the lawsuit cites the large amount of taxes she claims Shakira owes, as well as her history of filing false tax returns, as aggravating factors in the case.

Shakira’s legal troubles began in 2018 when Spanish authorities accused her of evading taxes amounting to 14.5 million euros, or nearly $15 million, between 2012 and 2014, a three-year period during which she claimed she had not officially moved to Spain. The judiciary last year concluded that prosecutors gathered enough evidence to pursue tax fraud charges in court.

Shakira was also reportedly among the celebrities whose names appeared in two large sets of leaked financial documents in 2017 and 2021, which investigations linked to offshore companies in tax evasion such as the British Virgin Islands and Malta.

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