Spanish prosecutors filed a claim against ManU Manager José Mourinho, "accusing him of defrauding the tax authorities" of €3.3M while he managed Real Madrid, according to Sam Jones of the London GUARDIAN. In a statement released on Tuesday, a prosecutor in Madrid said that the Portuguese manager had committed two counts of tax fraud in '11 and '12, saying that "corporate structures were used by the accused in order to conceal revenues generated from his image rights." The prosecutor alleged Mourinho "failed to declare that income when he submitted his tax returns" in the relevant years, "with the intention of deriving unlawful benefit." A judge will decide whether the matter will go to court. It also emerged on Tuesday that Cristiano Ronaldo will testify in court on July 31 over allegations that he defrauded the authorities of €14.8M ($16.5M) in unpaid taxes between '11 and '14 (GUARDIAN, 6/20). In London, Sam Wallace reported Mourinho, who is on holiday, follows Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Radamel Falcao, Javier Mascherano and Ángel Di María as players and coaches "who have worked in Spain and found themselves under investigation or prosecuted." The Spanish tax office "can investigate alleged fraud up to four years back in its records." The Spanish tax year runs, "unlike in Britain, over the course of a normal calendar year," ending on Dec. 31. However, tax returns can be filed "up to six months after the end of the tax year which also give a de facto extension to the powers of investigation" (TELEGRAPH, 6/20). REUTERS' Castillo & Day reported Mourinho left Real Madrid in '13 to manage Chelsea for a second spell before signing with ManU in '16. Gestifute, a Portuguese-based agency which represents Mourinho and Ronaldo, "did not immediately respond to requests for comment" (REUTERS, 6/20). EUROSPORT reported prosecutors said that Mourinho "had already settled a previous claim relating to his Spanish taxes," which resulted in a penalty of €1.15M in '14. But tax authorities "later found that some of the information presented in that settlement was incorrect," the prosecutors said (EUROSPORT, 6/20).
