Barcelona Superstar Javier Mascherano Bags One Year In Prison Over £1.2million Tax Fraud

 Javier Mascherano

Barcelona Superstar Javier Mascherano Bags One Year In Prison Over £1.2million Tax Fraud, David Aineto, FC Barcelona, Javier Mascherano, Javier Mascherano Sentenced One Year In Prison Over £1.2million Tax Fraud, Tax Fraud ⋅ No comments

Barcelona star Javier Mascherano has been sentenced to one year in prison over £1.2million tax fraud. He attended the hearing at the Court of Barcelona on Thursday but is not likely to spend a year behind bars. It’s gathered that his lawyer David Aineto, requested the prison sentence to be substituted for the fine, €815,000 which he is yet to pay. Aineto is also said to be attempting to have the offences removed from Mascherano’s criminal record by paying an additional fine. It’s learnt that in Spain people handed sentences of less than two years are not normally required to serve their sentence, unless they are being punished for violent crime, if they agree to a fine.

Mascherano in his published open letter after the verdict, insisted he was an ‘honest and responsible person’.

He wrote: ‘After agreeing my arrival at Barcelona I engaged the services of a prestigious Spanish tax firm of the highest professional standing and excellent reputation.

‘Having in consideration my situation, they recommended to me certain financial structures, all of which they informed me were common practise, totally transparent and accepted by the law.

‘I was assessed by these professionals from 2010 until 2014 when I decided to change my advisors in view of the proceedings that had been initiated against me along with evidence that my problem was no longer just a possibility but had become a reality.

‘My new advisors recommended that I should pay all the taxes being reclaimed by the Inland Revenue presenting what is referred to as ‘corrections’ over all the relevant fiscal years.

‘Now, finally, and after a bitter and painful episode in my life I have finally reached agreement which leaves me safe in the knowledge that I am fully up to date with all my financial obligations.

‘I am a professional sportsman and I do not have great knowledge of neither legal nor tax-related matters. For that reason I need to rely on the support of those people trained to deal with such matters that, for me, are complicated.

‘Throughout my career I have been honest and responsible, respecting my team mates at the clubs and all those countries where I have lived.

‘This situation I have found myself in I will treat as one more experience in my life from which, hopefully, I can emerge stronger, at peace and content in the knowledge that I am once again in compliance with the law.

‘I reserve the right to take possible action against those advisors who mismanaged my affairs and recommended things to me that were not correct.’

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