Argentina and Barcelona star Lionel Messi and his father Jorge are to stand trial on three counts of tax fraud that could carry prison sentences, a Spanish court confirmed on Thursday. In a court filing, the judge in charge of the case rejected a request by the public prosecutor to try only the footballer’s father.
The pair were accused in 2013 of defrauding the taxman out of 4.16 million euros ($4.69 million) in taxes related to Messi‘s image rights between 2007 and 2009 through the creation of fake companies in Belize and Uruguay. It is alleged they ceded the player’s image rights to the companies in order to avoid declaring money made from lucrative deals with sponsors in Spain.
