Shakira tax fraud court case set to begin

This Monday, the Barcelona Court has scheduled the singer Shakira to take the stand, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for eight years and two months in prison for defrauding the Treasury of 14.5 million between 2012 and 2014, although it is believed the trial will be halted by a last-minute pact.

In twelve sessions, for which 117 witnesses are scheduled to appear, in addition to experts and inspectors from the Tax Agency, the court will have to resolve whether, as the Prosecutor’s Office maintains, the Colombian artist pretended to have tax residence in the Bahamas to evade her obligation to pay taxes to the Spanish Treasury.

This is not the only legal front that the singer has open for alleged tax evasion. A court in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) has been investigating her since last July following another complaint from the Prosecutor’s Office that accuses her of defrauding more than six million in personal income tax and the 2018 wealth tax, using a corporate network based in tax havens.

This new criminal case could encourage an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, which the artist already rejected in July 2022, when after maintaining several contacts with the public ministry, she discarded their offer, which sought to reduce her sentence in exchange for Shakira acknowledging the crime, and risk it at trial.

Update: Moments before the trial, a deal was reached, stopping the process and with Shakira avoiding prison.

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