After she rejected a plea agreement in connection with allegations of tax evasion, Spanish prosecutors announced Friday that they would seek a prison term of more than eight years for international music sensation Shakira.
The 45-year-old “Hips don’t Lie” singer will also be required to pay a fine of over 24 million euros ($24.5 million) after being accused by Barcelona prosecutors of defrauding the Spanish tax authority of 14.5 million euros in income between 2012 and 2014.
Shakira, whose albums have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, rejected a plea deal on Wednesday, saying in a statement released through her attorneys that she was “absolutely certain of her innocence” and had chosen to take the case to trial, “confident” that her innocence would be established.
A trial date has not yet been established, nor has a formal referral to court been published. Up to the start of any trial, according to Shakira’s attorneys, one of the biggest names in the world of music.
Shakira, according to the prosecution, relocated to Spain in 2011 after her relationship with FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique became well-known, yet she continued to file her taxes in the Bahamas until 2015. The two children that the couple has together announced their separation in June.
The actress criticised the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday for using “abusive methods” and “completely violating her rights.”
She said that while she was “not yet resident in Spain,” prosecutors “insisted on demanding money earned during my foreign tours and the show ‘The Voice,'” on which she served as a judge in the United States.
Between 2013 and 2014, Shakira appeared on the singing competition programme.
Her attorneys claim that up until 2014, she mostly made her money from overseas tours, only permanently relocated to Spain in 2015, and has complied with all tax requirements.
She claims that she has paid 17.2 million euros in taxes to the Spanish government and that she hasn’t owed the Treasury anything in “many years.”
The “Pandora Papers,” one of the biggest financial document breaches ever, which included public people connected to offshore assets, included Shakira in its list of names in October 2021.
Shakira, a three-time Grammy winner, achieved enormous global success with songs like “Hips don’t Lie,” “Whenever, Wherever,” and “Waka Waka,” the official World Cup song, by fusing Latin and Arabic rhythms with rock influences.
Picture courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright