Lionel Messi has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud, according to the BBC. He and his father were both charged, but "neither man is expected to serve time in jail." His father, Jorge Messi, was given a jail term for defrauding Spain of €4.1M ($4.5M) between '07 and '09. They also "face millions of euros in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights." Under the Spanish system, "prison terms of under two years can be served under probation." The player and his father "were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud in Wednesday's ruling by the court in Barcelona." As well as the jail terms, Messi was fined about €2M ($2.2M) and his father €1.5M ($1.7M). They made a voluntary €5M "corrective payment," equal to the alleged unpaid tax plus interest, in Aug. '13. His club said in a statement, "FC Barcelona expresses its full support to Leo Messi and his father in relation to the conviction for tax fraud. ... The club ... considers that the player, who has corrected his position with the Spanish tax office, is in no way criminally responsible with regards to the facts underlined in this case" (BBC, 7/6).
AVENUE OF APPEAL: ESPN reported Messi and his father will appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court. A statement said that lawyers for Messi and his father believed that the sentence was "incorrect" and "expect the outcome of their appeal to rule in favour of the defence." It said that lawyers Enrique Bacigalupo and Javier Sanchez-Vera believed the appeal would "show Lionel acted correctly at all times, as did his father." The lawyers "stressed that both Lionel and Jorge were aware of their tax obligations and, for this reason, approached a firm specialising in tax management for athletes" -- but the court "considered they were not well advised." The Barcelona court said the sentence could be appealed through the Spanish supreme court -- "an option that is likely to take around a year to be resolved." In court last month, Lionel Messi "admitted he had signed many documents without reading their contents" and visited a notary's office to set up a company "to handle his finances without understanding what was going on." According to Forbes magazine, Messi earns a total of $81.4M a year, "making him No. 2 in their list of world's highest-paid athletes" for '16 (ESPN, 7/6).
