Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of evading taxes (Source: AP)
A lawsuit has been filed against Real Madrid star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday for evading tax of millions of euros.
The Portugal captain is accused of evading taxes of 14.7m euros (£13m; $16m) from 2011 to 2014. A statement from the prosecutor’s office said that Ronaldo used a ‘business structure’ to hide revenue generation. The business structure, which was built in 2010, has been tagged as ‘voluntary’ and ‘conscious’.
The world’s highest-paid sports star according to a recent Forbes survey had previously said he was not worried about tax investigations as he had nothing to hide.
Documents suggesting that Ronaldo had avoided tax on income by holding them in offshore accounts were leaked in December.
This comes less than a month after Barcelona star Lionel Messi lost appeal in Spain’s Supreme Court over a 21-month prison sentence in a tax fraud case. Messi had said in court that he was unaware of the investments his father had made.
His father said that the contracts were cleared by a legal adviser.
The football legend Ronaldo, who became the leading goal scorer for Real Madrid, enjoyed a stellar season in which he led Portugal to Euro 2016 title, won the La Liga with his club for the first time in five years, and also retained the Champions League trophy under manager Zinedine Zidane.