Samuel Eto'o to be handed 10-years jail sentence

“The footballer pretended he had
ceded his rights to two other
companies in Hungary and Spain so as
to fraudulently avoid paying taxes,”

With Neymar and Lionel Messi at Barcelona facing tax fraud cases, Samuel Eto'o has come as one of the latest players to be prosecuted for tax fraud having also played for Barcelona .

Samuel Eto'o Phils faces a jail term as Spanish prosecutors have demanded the former Barcelona striker should be handed a jail sentence of 10 years and the Cameroonian  should pay a total sum of 14.3-million-euro ($15 million) fine for alleged tax fraud. This was revealed by a court filing on Thursday.

According to the Spanish prosecutors, Samuel Eto’o while still at Barcelona set up front
companies to avoid paying taxes from the year 2006 untill 2009, before finally leaving for Italy.

The fraud, they say, amounts to some
3.9 million euros.
“The footballer pretended he had ceded his rights to two other companies in Hungary and Spain so as to fraudulently avoid paying taxes,”
they added in accusations seen by AFP
calling for Eto’o to be tried.

The income diverted to the company
based in Hungary wasn’t taxed in
Spain, and benefitted from the eastern
European country’s low tax rate,
prosecutors said.

The money put in the Spanish firm,
meanwhile, was taxed at a lower rate
as it came under the regime of
company — rather than income —
taxation.

Prosecutors estimate the footballer, a
four-time former African Player of the
Year, should reimburse the alleged
fraud to tax authorities plus interest,
and pay a 14.3-million-euro fine.

They want a prison sentence of 18
months for the 2006 fraud, and then
three years jail for each subsequent
year until 2009, which adds up to 10-
and-a-half years.

Even if he is given the full sentence,
though, he is unlikely to spend all that
time in jail, given prisoners often get
paroled for good behaviour.

Barcelona players’ legal woes –
Eto’o is not the only FC Barcelona
player to be accused of tax fraud.
Argentine superstar Lionel Messi,
fellow countryman Javier Mascherano,
as well as Brazil’s Adriano and Chile’s
Alexis Sanchez, have been subject to
similar allegations linked to image
rights.

Messi and his father were sentenced in
July to 21 months in jail for tax fraud,
which they are appealing.

Whatever the outcome, the prison
sentences are likely to be suspended as
is common in Spain for first offences
for non-violent crimes carrying a
sentence of less than two years.
Mascherano, meanwhile, was given a
one-year suspended jail sentence last
December.

Brazilian star Neymar is also under
judicial scrutiny, with prosecutors
recommending he be handed a two-
year jail sentence and a 10-million-
euro fine for alleged corrupt practices
in his 2013 transfer to Barcelona.

Eto’o spent a hugely successful decade
in Spain’s La Liga, playing for both
Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.




Source : The Guardian
Photocredit: Getty images