Amid tax evasion allegations leveled against music icon, Shakira, the Spanish government on Friday said they would seek a prison sentence of more than eight years against the music superstar after she rejected a plea deal.
It was also gathered that prosecutors in Barcelona will also demand a fine of nearly 24 million euros ($24.5 million) from the “Hips don’t Lie” songstress, whom they accuse of defrauding the Spanish tax office out of 14.5 million euros on income earned between 2012 and 2014.
According to AFP, Shakira, who has sold over 60 million albums, rejected a plea deal on Wednesday, saying in a statement through her lawyers that she was “absolutely certain of her innocence” and had decided to let the case go to court, “confident” that her innocence would be proven.
The global music star claimed prosecutors were “insisting on claiming money earned during my international tours and the show ‘The Voice’” on which she was a judge in the United States, when she was “not yet resident in Spain”.
Shakira was on the singing competition show between 2013 and 2014.
Her lawyers say that until 2014 she earned most of her money from international tours, moved to Spain full time only in 2015 and has met all tax obligations.
The 45-year-old singer says she has paid 17.2 million euros to Spanish tax authorities and that she has “no debt to the Treasury for many years”.
A formal referral to court has not yet been announced, neither has a trial date been set.
The tax case is coming a month after Shakira and her husband, FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, who have been together since 2011 and have two sons announced they were separating.