Spanish authorities probing Messi over #PanamaPapers

Spanish tax authorities on Monday said they are investigating allegations of tax irregularities involving soccer player, Lionel Messi, after documents released by an international probe of offshore accounts.

Messi’s family released a statement denying wrongdoing and threatened to sue media outlets that released the information linking the Argentine player to accounts in Panama. Barcelona said it was supporting Messi and his family.

The soccer star was among those named in reports by international media who received a vast trove of data and documents leaked from Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in creating offshore accounts which allegedly can be used to avoid tax.

Last year, Spanish authorities charged Messi and his father with three counts of tax fraud for allegedly defrauding Spain’s tax office of 4.1 million euros (NZ$6.84m) in unpaid taxes from 2007-09. They will stand trial in late May and potentially face nearly two years in prison if found guilty.

The Spanish newspaper, El Confidencial published a story based on the leaked documents, claiming that a company had been set up in Panama just a day after Spanish tax authorities unveiled the charges for the alleged irregularities committed from 2007-09. The newspaper published documents that appeared to contain the signatures of Messi and his father.

The Spanish tax agency said it is “closely investigating the information that has been published.”

The agency, which is also probing Spaniards mentioned in the documents, said it was already looking at the tax forms presented by all those involved, including companies possibly used by them.

The statement from Messi’s family said it “never used the company” that has been linked to Messi in the so-called “Panama Papers.”

“Lionel Messi has not carried out any of the acts of which he is accused in the stories,” the statement said. “The allegations of him having designed a tax evasion project are false and injurious, as are those relating to the creation of a money laundering network.”

The family said that the Panamanian company linked to Messi is inactive, “has never had any capital or active current accounts” and that it “dates from the old corporate structure set up by the Messi family’s previous financial advisers, with the tax implications for Lionel Messi having been settled at the time.”

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