Shakira’s judicial horizon clears in Spain

The Spanish justice system announced on Thursday the shelving of a procedure for alleged tax fraud against Colombian star Shakirawhich puts an end to his criminal cases in the country where he resided for a time.

The judge accepted the request of the Prosecutor’s Office and, despite considering that the artist committed “irregularities” in his 2018 tax returns (which caused the Spanish treasury to stop receiving around six million euros (about $6.4 million) -, he did not see in his behavior “an intention to defraud”, so he should not considered a criminal offense.

“There is no indication that can prove that Shakira Isabel MR had consciously and voluntarily omitted information and documentation with tax significance,” the head magistrate of the court in charge of the case, on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​indicated in her decision.

The Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, had already considered that there were no “sufficient” indications. to criminally prosecute for this reason the interpreter of global hits such as “Hips dont’ lie” or “Waka, Waka”, who has had several disagreements with the Spanish treasury through different means.

This court announced in July the opening of this new process against Shakira for not having correctly declared your Income Tax (IRPF) and Wealth Tax, in fiscal year 2018.

Shortly after, the artist from Barranquilla, Shakira, 47 years old, handed over 6.6 million euros to the court to show his willingness to regularize his situation with the Treasury. This sum included, in addition to the amount claimed, interest and regularization fees.

“Smear campaign”

After hearing the news, Shakira’s representatives celebrated this court decision which, according to them, puts “a stop to the smear campaign that the singer has been suffering from the Treasury,” as they indicated in a statement.

“Our client is totally satisfied that it is finally recognized that she did not commit any criminal fraud, but her fight against the Spanish Tax Agency does not end here,” added her lawyer, Pau Molins, quoted in the note.

The artist still maintains an administrative case with the Spanish Treasury related to 2011, but not through criminal means.

Shakira already avoided undergoing a media trial last year before a Barcelona court for another reason, after reaching a last-minute agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office by which he agreed to acknowledge the facts, as well as pay a fine of more than seven million euros.

The Public Ministry accused him on this occasion of not having paid at the time around 14.5 million euros of taxes in Spain, in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, despite having resided in the country for more than the days stipulated by law to pay taxes.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested a sentence of eight years and two months in prison for the singer of “Ciega, Deafmuda” and a fine of 23.8 million euros.

Shakira defended, for her part, that she did not commit any wrongdoing since, despite having started a relationship with Piqué in 2011, she led a nomadic life due to her international career, and her tax residence was in the Bahamas until the beginning of 2015.

Agreement

But, at the start of the first session of a trial that could have exposed part of her private life, Shakira formalized her agreement with the Public Ministry and accepted a compliant sentence that included, among others, the payment of a fine of more than 7 .3 million euros, corresponding to “50%” of the total fraud.

Previously, the singer Shakira (who in 2021 also appeared in the so-called Pandora Papers, the journalistic investigation that pointed out hundreds of personalities for having supposedly resorted to tax havens), He had already paid 17.45 million euros to the Spanish treasury to regularize his situation in this case.

Reference of Latin music, the career of Shakira It has aroused great public interest for decades. After her high-profile separation from Piqué in 2022, the singer, who returned to the front line with hits like “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”, decided to move to Miami with her two children.

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In addition to Shakiramany other famous people have had problems with the Spanish treasury in recent years, such as the footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, sentenced to prison sentences of less than two years that they did not have to serve because they had no criminal record.