Argentina football star Lionel Messi
said on Thursday he trusted his father with his finances and “knew
nothing” about how his wealth was managed as he took the stand at his
tax fraud trial, AFP reports.
“I was playing football. I had no idea
about anything,” the five-time World Player of the Year told the
Barcelona court hearing the case.
“I trusted my dad and my lawyers,” the
28-year-old, who wore a black suit and tie, added during the roughly 20
minutes he was questioned.
Messi and his father Jorge Horacio Messi
are accused of using a chain of fake companies in Belize and Uruguay to
avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros ($4.6m) of Messi’s income
earned through the sale of his image rights from 2007-09.
The income related to Messi’s image
rights that was allegedly hidden and includes endorsement deals with
Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the
Kuwait Food Company.
“All I knew was that we signed
agreements with certain sponsors, for ‘X’ amount of money and that I had
to do adverts, photos and those things but about the money and where it
went I knew nothing,” Messi told the court.
The Barcelona forward and his defence
team have long argued that Messi’s father handled the footballer’s
finances without reporting to him, and the striker was not aware of any
wrongdoing.
Both Messi and his father, who has
managed his son’s affairs since he was a child, have been charged with
three counts of tax fraud.
Spanish prosecutors are seeking a jail
sentence of 22-and-a-half months for them if they are found guilty, plus
fines equivalent to the amount that was allegedly defrauded.
But any such sentence would likely be
suspended as is common in Spain for first offences carrying a sentence
of less than two years.
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