Messi to face tax fraud trial as state attorney recommends jail term

The Argentina and Barcelona star faces three charges that carry a potential jail sentence.

Messi’s lawyers petitioned the court to request that only his father be charged in the case, but the judge stood firm that both would stand trial.

The 28-year-old Barcelona forward and his father Jorge Horacio Messi have been accused of defrauding Spain’s tax office of 4 million euros ($4.5 million) in unpaid taxes from 2007-09.

Spain has recently been cracking down on tax evasion as part of its fight to fix the countrys public finances after a prolonged recession triggered by the collapse of its once-booming real estate sector.Messis legal case is not the only one affecting Barcelona.

However, in court documents released Thursday this argument was rejected as Messi was identified as the alleged “coauthor” of the fraud.

“FC Barcelona has expressed its affection and solidarity to Leo Messi and his family in such a peculiar situation”, the statement said.

The Barca player and his father made a voluntary €5m “corrective payment” – the amount equal to what they were alleged of not paying as taxes in August 2013.

“It hasn t been found that (Lionel Messi’s) lack of understanding was in fact think or was ended for the objective of defrauding the Treasury”, prosecutors said within the assertion, by They.

Messi could, however, be called upon to testify in the case against Jorge, who has acted as his son’s agent throughout his professional career.

He is 10th on Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s highest-earning athletes over the past decade with income of 350 million.

The news is just the latest blow for the Argentine, who will be out of action for six weeks due to knee ligament damage.