Accused of tax evasion, Shakira will be tried by the Spanish courts

Colombian star Shakira will be tried for tax evasion by a court located on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​​​northeast of Spain. A date has yet to be set, the country’s judicial authorities announced on Tuesday, September 27.

At the end of July, the prosecution announced that it would request a sentence of more than eight years in prison against the singer, accused of having evaded 14.5 million euros from the Spanish tax authorities between 2012 and 2014. A decision taken following of the refusal of the star to find an agreement with justice. claiming his innocence, the performer of the hits Hips don’t lie, WakaWaka Where Loca said he would prefer a trial rather than a plea bargain.

According to the prosecution, Shakira had been living in Spain since 2011 when her relationship with FC Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique was made public. But she had maintained her tax residence in the Bahamas, considered a tax haven, until 2015. The couple, who have two children, have since separated.

For their part, Shakira’s lawyers believe that until 2014 most of the star’s income came from her international tours and that she lived no more than six months a year in Spain, a condition required to establish her tax residency in the country.

The name of the singer is among those cited in the Pandora Papers, a vast investigation published at the end of 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, accusing several hundred personalities of having concealed assets in offshore companies, in particular for the purposes of tax evasion.