Argentina and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi has been found guilty of tax fraud along with his father and each sentenced to 21 months in prison. Messi and his father Jorge Horacio are unlikely to serve any jail time. Under Spanish law they can serve their sentences under probation. The Daily Express reports: The £256,000-a-week star was also fined £1.7 million – six seeks’ wages – by a court in Barcelona. Superstar Messi, considered the world’s best player, was tried alongside his father Jorge after defrauding Spain’s tax authority of 4.1m euros (£3.19m) from 2007-09. During the trial, prosecutors said tax havens in Belize and Uruguay were used to conceal huge earnings from his lucrative image rights. Messi, 29, said he “knew nothing” about his financial affairs because he was busy “playing football”, adding that he signed documents without reading them. He told the court last month: “The truth is no, the truth is no, I didn’t know. “As my dad explained earlier I just dedicated myself to playing football, I put my trust in my father, in the lawyers who had decided to manage this thing.” Jorge Messi claimed he did not have enough knowledge to orchestrate such a fraud, [...]
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