Shakira agrees to a $1 million fine and admits to tax fraud

Colombian singer Shakira accepted fines totaling nearly 7.8 million euros on Monday to avoid a three-year prison sentence handed down by a court in Barcelona after she admitted defrauding the state treasury of 14 between 2012 and 2014. .5 million euros.

The artist, for whom the prosecution sought eight years and two months in prison, in a brief appearance before the sixth department of the Barcelona court, confirmed the agreement that her defense reached at the last moment with the prosecution and the private accusations. presented by the Tax Agency and the Generalitat.

A fine of 7.3 million euros

In this way the court condemned “by voice” to Shakira to a sentence of three years in prison and payment of a fine of 7.3 million euros, and according to the claims of the parties he suspended his entry into jail in exchange for the payment of a total of 432,000 euros, 400 for each day spared from being behind bars.

Shakira has already paid back the 14.5 million euros she defrauded the Treasury, plus another three million euros in interest, allowing the prosecution to apply the highly qualified mitigating circumstance of reparation and thus the pact.

The agreement also meant a significant reduction in the fine the singer faced, 23.7 million euros, which remained at 7.3, which is half of the defrauded fee.

The artist thus avoided the trial that was supposed to start this Monday at the court in Barcelona and which was supposed to resolve through twelve hearings whether the singer avoided paying taxes to the Spanish treasury between 2012 and 2014 by pretending to be living outside of Spain. .

Shakira again accuses the Ministry of Finance and justifies the pact: “The children asked me for it”

Shakira once again attacked the Ministry of Finance in a statement justifying the agreement reached this Monday to avoid trial for tax fraud in exchange for a fine of one million dollars: “My children asked me, I made this decision for them.”

Shakira’s communications agency – Llorente and Cuenca – sent a press release to the media just as the artist was speaking a few brief words before a court in Barcelona to ratify a last-minute deal her defense reached with the charges, which prevents him from going to trial.

Shakira claimed in her statement that she opted for the deal to avoid the “wear and tear and time” that the criminal process takes on a “singer of international prestige,” as well as “the impact of media exposure and trial time, which on many occasions is an exhausting length.”

“I felt ready to face the trial and defend my innocence,” insists the singer, after remembering that she had “two options, to keep fighting until the end”, mortgaging her peace of mind and that of her children, her career and things .. that you like or close this chapter of your life “looking forward”.

In this sense, she admitted that her own children asked her to come to an agreement, so she decided to focus on “the most important thing in her life” and avoid the “tiredness” of seeing her mother in court.

“I have to choose my battles, and now the most important thing for me is to do everything for my children to live a full life and focus on what is really important: watching them grow and spending time with them,” the singer points out in her statement.