Cristiano tax fraud
Cristiano Ronaldo accepts tax fraud charges and gets court date
Juventus' Portuguese forward has been given his date in court to ratify the agreement reached with the Treasury after defrauding the state of 14.7 million euros.
Madrid's court has called on Cristiano Ronaldo to appear before a judge on Monday 14 January 2019 to ratify the agreement reached with the Treasury after being accused of defrauding 14.7 million euros. At the hearing, the Juventus player will be found guilty of the four accounts of tax fraud during his time at Real Madrid and will accept a two-year prison sentence that he will then not be required to serve. (This is normal practice for first-time offenders).
Ronaldo's tax fraud case
Cristiano has already paid off the fine to the Treasury (the bulk of it on 6 August 2018, when he handed over 13.4 million euros) but has yet to appear in court before the prosecutor, as is stipulated by Spanish law. In fact, the Juventus player's lawyer, José Antonio Choclán, had tried to get the criminal charges replaced by an additional fine of 375,000 euros, but this was refused.
In related news this week, another Portuguese player formerly of Madrid, Fábio Coentrão, admitted to fraud and went through the same legal process. His lawyer, who happens to be the same as Cristiano's, managed to get agreement that Coentrao could appear not in person but by videoconference. Choclán is working so that Cristiano can do the same, with the famous number seven preferring to hear the sentence from a distance. In the end, however, this is a decision for the judge to make.
