Lionel Messi Given Prison Sentence

Lionel Messi, of Barcelona Football Club and former Argentina international, has been convicted of fraud and handed a 21-month term, subject to appeal.

Argentina and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud.

His father, Jorge Messi, was also given a jail term for defrauding Spain of €4.1m (£3.5m; $4.5m) between 2007 and 2009.

They also face millions of euros in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.

www.bbc.co.uk...

However, it has been speculated by the BBC that neither Messi, and nor his father who was also charged, will actually face time because the term is under 2 years.

They are also expected to appeal as they both claim they knew nothing of the fraud, instead putting blame on their financial team.

I was playing football, I knew nothing. I only worried about playing football.

So do we now know why Messi retired from international duty? It makes sense, he may have seen this coming (or was advised) and therefore quit the national arena due to what would obviously be a serious blemish on his career.

Further reading on his retirement: www.abovetopsecret.com...

In other news, Wales will be playing Portugal tonight.

a reply to: IllegalName

When you are worth something like $220 million, you should probably not be risking it with such questionable financial activities. Perhaps he had bad advisors, or maybe he thought he could save a lot by fudging his taxes. Either way, that's gonna be a difficult transition for him, going from FIFA world star to just another prison inmate (probably will have some extra privileges, but nonetheless)

Side note, I'm sure Wales are playing Portugal...
It's the big Bale vs Ronaldo battle.



On topic, this will be a suspended sentence at most I'd bet.

First offence surely. They'll be lenient I'm guessing.

a reply to: FamCore

Indeed. To be fair, I would imagine that he’s rich enough to not worry about dodging some tax, certainly not at his age at the moment. He just has (or had) too much to lose. Even his father should see it the same way; why risk his son’s career and credibility? I don’t want to throw around wild speculation, but at the same time I wouldn’t at all be surprised if their financial advisors were “putting some aside” without their knowledge. Either way, I seriously doubt that he’ll end up behind bars.

a reply to: Hazardous1408

First offence surely. They'll be lenient I'm guessing.

This. I was going to say that but I dunno if it is a first for him or his father, probably is though.

Side note, I'm sure Wales are playing Portugal...

Yes of course, got confused with it being in France!

a reply to: IllegalName

Nope. He quit the national arena because he lost four tournament finals.

a reply to: TheBandit795

Yeah, this was most certainly a big factor... it’s just with this news coming in I do wonder if there was some foresight on the matter which swayed his decision.

a reply to: FamCore

He won't get prison time.

This seems to me that anyone with mass income from multiple sources is being forced to have a big four corporation (Ernst & Young, PWC, KPMG, Deloitte) to handle their fiscal business. These governments are coming up up with more and more tax laws, complicating the tax code more. This is probably making it very difficult to stay out of prison if they don't have a large team of tax lawyers handling (which increasingly are found in big four corporations) their taxes.

Perhaps it's an effect of big four lobbying governments to regulate small tax offices out of business?? AKA a conspiracy???