On Tuesday, August 2, the 45-year-old Colombian singer leaves Miami with her sons amid warnings she may face up to eight years' jail for alleged tax fraud.
- Aug 4, 2022
AceShowbiz - Shakira has left Miami amid news she may face up to eight years in prison for alleged tax fraud. The 45-year-old Colombian singer was photographed on Tuesday, August 2, with her sons, 7-year-old Sasha and 9-year-old and Milan, as they made their way out of the city through its airport.
She shares the boys with Spanish football player Gerard Pique, 35, from whom she recently split after accusations he cheated. Her trip comes as she faces up to eight years in jail if found guilty of an alleged £12 million tax fraud.
She is accused of defrauding the Spanish treasury out of a fortune over a three-year period from 2012 to 2014. Prosecutors want the maximum sentence over six separate counts of tax fraud totalling £12.2 million. The charges were contained in an indictment submitted by prosecutors to the investigating court near Barcelona, and made public for the first time on July 29.
A representative for Shakira said in a statement, "Shakira has always cooperated and abided by the law, demonstrating impeccable conduct as an individual and a taxpayer, and faithfully following the counsel of PriceWaterhouse Coopers, a prestigious and globally recognized tax firm."
"Unfortunately, the Spanish Tax Office, which loses one out of every two lawsuits with its taxpayers, continues to violate her rights and pursue yet another baseless case. Shakira is confident that her innocence will be proven by the end of the judicial process."
As well as an eight-year prison sentence, state prosecutors want the mum-of-two to be fined £19.2 million. Shakira, born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, is accused of pretending to live abroad to avoid paying tax despite moving to Barcelona in 2011 to be with Pique. She has already paid an estimated £2.5 million to the Spanish taxman.
Shakira, previously living in the Bahamas, registered as a full tax resident in Spain in 2015. Official residents in Spain pay Spanish taxes on their worldwide income and people who spent more than 183 days in a calendar year there are considered Spanish residents for tax purposes.
Tax inspectors spent more than a year checking up on the singer and even visited her favourite hairdressers in Barcelona and trawled her social media to try to show she spent most of the three years in dispute in Spain. They concluded she had spent 242 days in Spain in 2012, 212 days in 2013 and 243 days in the country in 2014. The report prosecutors submitted alleged the time she spent out of Spain were "sporadic absences" linked to work. Shakira has denied any wrongdoing.
