Barcelona star Lionel Messi and his father’s trial for tax fraud will begin on May 31st at a court in Barcelona, a regional superior court said on Wednesday.
Messi and his father Jorge have been charged with tax fraud for allegedly failing to declare 4.16 million Euros in taxes related to his image rights between 2007 and 2009 through front companies in Belize and Uruguay.
Public prosecutors had asked for the case against the Argentine player to be dropped as they considered the alleged fraud was carried out by his father, who has managed his son’s affairs since he was a child.
But in October 2015 the judge in charge of the case rejected the request, writing in a court filing that “there are rational signs that the criminality was committed by both accused parties.”
