Tried to Avoid Taxes’
Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, accused of tax fraud amounting to more than $17 million, told a Spanish judge, “I have never hidden anything
MADRID — Cristiano Ronaldo told a Spanish judge on Monday that he had “never tried to avoid taxes.”
Ronaldo, the star Real Madrid forward who is from Portugal, was questioned to determine whether he committed tax fraud amounting to almost 15 million euros. Ronaldo spent more than 90 minutes answering the questions of the investigating judge, Mónica Gómez.
According to a statement in Spanish released by his public relations firm, the 32-year-old Ronaldo told the judge: “I have never hidden anything, and never tried to avoid taxes.”
Judge Gómez took Ronaldo’s testimony as part of an investigation to determine if there are grounds to charge him. The session, at Pozuelo de Alarcón Court No. 1 on the outskirts of Madrid, was closed to the public because it was part of a continuing investigation.
In June, a state prosecutor accused Ronaldo of four counts of tax fraud from 2011 to 2014 worth 14.7 million euros ($17.4 million). Ronaldo was accused of having used shell companies outside Spain to hide income made from image rights. The accusation does not involve his salary from Real Madrid.
Ronaldo denies any wrongdoing.
“Spain’s tax office knows all the details about my sources of income because we have reported them,” Ronaldo told the judge, according to his statement. “I always file my tax returns because I think that we should all file and pay our taxes.
“Those who know me know that I tell my consultants that they must have everything in order and paid up to date because I don’t want trouble.”
Before and after his court appearance, Ronaldo used an alternative entrance to avoid a swarm of more than a hundred journalists from Spain and abroad gathered near the main door to the court.
Court officials had said that either Ronaldo or his lawyer would speak to the media after he saw the judge, but instead the player’s spokesman, Iñaki Torres, announced in front of the courthouse that Ronaldo “was on his way home.”
The prosecutor said in June that Ronaldo used what was deemed a shell company in the Virgin Islands to “create a screen in order to hide his total income from Spain’s tax office.”
The inquiry into Ronaldo’s financial arrangements is among recent high-profile tax cases involving soccer’s top names in Spain.
Last year, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, were found guilty on three counts of defrauding tax authorities of 4.1 million euros from income made from image rights. They have both paid additional fines in exchange for their 21-month jail sentences to be suspended.