The Colombian singer Shakira has rejected the agreement offered by the Prosecutor’s Office in Spain to avoid being tried for four crimes against the public treasury and has decided to go to trial for alleged tax fraud, given that she “fully” trusts his innocence. As reported on Wednesday by the artist’s communication agency, her legal team held talks with the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office (northeast) to reach an agreement that would reduce the sentence that could correspond to her, but decided to reject the latest offer from the public ministry.

It’s a statement, Shakira assures that she has chosen to “leave the matter in the hands of the law, with the peace of mind and the confidence that justice will prove her right”.

Despite the fact that the prosecution and defense did not reach an agreement of conformity, which would not have prevented Shakira from sitting on the bench, the singer could still agree with the Prosecutor’s Office until the day of the trial.

Without settling for a reduction in the sentence that could correspond to him, the statement highlights. For the singer, this case “It constitutes a total outrage” to her rights, since she has always shown “impeccable conduct, as a person and taxpayer, and a full willingness to resolve any difference from the outset, even before criminal proceedings.”

“Still disagreeing” with the criteria of her legal team on the alleged tax fraud, the artist returned 17.4 million dollars to the Spanish Treasury, the sum allegedly defrauded plus interest, and “for many years there has been no outstanding debt” , remember.

Shakira regrets that “never” in any other country has she encountered a “such unreasonable and fierce persecution”, “nor such an obvious use of media and reputational pressure as a collection mechanism”.

The Spanish Treasury claimed some 14.7 million dollars when seeing indications that in 2012 the singer already resided in Spain and was obliged to pay taxes in this country since then, but allegedly hid income through a network based in tax havens.

The artist has already paid those 14.7 million dollars and another three in interest, which does not prevent her from going to trial for alleged tax fraud between 2012 and 2014.

The case dates back to 2017, when the so-called “paradise papers”, an investigation carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), revealed that she lived in Barcelona with her husband, the FC Barcelona footballer, Gerard Piqué, and her two children, but was allegedly domiciled in the tax haven of the Bahamas.

Last month the artist announced her separation from the player, her partner for the last twelve years.

The investigation also ensured that the singer managed in two countries with tax advantages, Malta and Luxembourg, about 32 million dollars for copyright of her songs.

The singer’s lawyers clarified that she had lived in the Bahamas since 2004 but the following years she had to travel “non-stop”, that until 2015 her presence in Spain did not exceed the period that requires her to pay taxes and that the management of those millions carried out since 2007 through a Maltese company that “complies with all legal requirements”.

MOVING AND CONDITIONS

Faced with the harassment by the press suffered in the property where the entire family lived, Shakira requested the possibility of settling in Miami with the little ones, aged 9 and 7; made before which the central marker in principle refused. But according to the program The hot table (Telemundo)would have changed position and I would be willing to sign the permits, with two non-negotiable conditions.

Which are? To guarantee him five first-class tickets a year to visit and be around the children and a fixed amount of $400,000 to pay off an old debt.. Thus, at least for the moment, Shakira and Piqué would move away, beyond the plan hatched by their parents to try a reconciliation.

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