Barcelona star, Lionel Messi, risks a prison sentence of 22 months and 15 days if found guilty of his alleged attempts to avoid tax payments when he signed contracts related to image rights.
The Barcelona star appeared on trial on Thursday to give his testimony at the Barcelona high court alongside his father facing charges of tax fraud.
It is alleged that Messi and his father Jorge avoided paying over €4.1 million (£3 million, $4.5 million) in tax on the Barcelona star’s earnings by using offshore companies in Belize and Uruguay between 2007 and 2009.
They already paid the Spanish authorities a voluntary corrective payment of around €5 million after being formally charged in 2013.
Messi, however, has defended himself in court after claiming that he signed documents without reading them because he trusted his father and the lawyers responsible for managing his finances.
“I didn’t know anything,” Messi told the courtroom, according to Marca. “I was focused on playing football and didn’t have any idea. I trusted my father and the lawyers. [I] signed where they told me to, I trusted in my father and never thought he could deceive me. These matters never interested me, which is why I was unaware I was breaking the law.”
His father also defence his innocence adding: “I understand these laws as much as I understand Chinese. I didn’t have any knowledge of the laws and simply said yes or no to the proposals presented to me. My intention was to make life easier for my son, to accompany him and to allow him to focus on football. Eventually, we needed legal and accounting help.”
The trial will resume on Friday (June 33) for sentencing but a verdict is not expected until next week.
