Barcelona: Barcelona's Argentine star Lionel Messi and his father are being investigated in Spain for allegedly defrauding the state of more than four million euros. The World Player of the Year and his father Jorge allegedly filed fraudulent tax returns for the years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, according to a spokesman for the prosecutor's office for tax crimes in Catalonia.
His net annual salary at Barcelona is said to be 16 million euros, making him one of the world's highest-paid athletes. On Wednesday, a complaint signed by prosecutor Raquel Amado was filed at the courthouse in Gava - the affluent Barcelona district where Messi lives.
According to the reports, judges at the courthouse must accept the complaint before the suspects can be charged. Messi and his father are suspected of using companies abroad - in Belize and Uruguay - to sell footballer's image rights. The accusation is that by using companies based outside Spain where he lives and plays club football, Messi and his father avoided paying more than four millions euros in tax.
If convicted, Messi could face up to six years in prison and a large fine, according to Spain's EFE news agency.
Messi, who will be 26 this month, is one of the world's highest-paid athletes with a salary of just over $20 million a season, according to Forbes magazine. On top of his Barca wages, he pulls in around $21 million in endorsements from sponsors including Adidas, PepsiCo and P&G; and he is 10th on Forbes' latest list of top-earning athletes.
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