Mascherano pleads guilty to tax avoidence
Xinhua, October 30, 2015 Adjust font size:
FC Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano ended a bad week on Friday when he pleaded guilty to charges of tax avoidance.
The Argentinean made a 55-minute appearance in court, three of which he spent in front of the judge, facing charges of defrauding Spanish tax authorities of just over 1.5 million Euros (1.65 million US dollars).
This money was defrauded through the use of two companies: one based in Miami and another in Madeira in what prosecutors described as a "strategy aimed at hiding income generated through his image rights."
He was accused of defrauding 587,822 euros in 2011 and 968,907 euros the following year.
The footballer has already paid that money to the authorities plus around 200,000 more euros in interest, but he was still called to court in order to testify.
Mascherano, who is suspended for the next two games after being controversially sent off during Barca' s 3-1 win to Eibar last Sunday, is not the only Barca player to have tax problems with Leo Messi due to face charges on tax fraud in the near future and Neymar also under investigation by Spanish authorities. Endi