Shakira Charged With Tax Fraud in Spain for a 2nd Time After Allegedly Failing to Pay $7 Million
The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ songstress was charged on September 26 for allegedly failing to pay the Spanish government just over $7 million in taxes.
Shakira, 46, made headlines in July after Spain investigated the singer for tax fraud. Now, they’ve officially filed charges against her on September 26, as reported by NBC News. The recent VMA winner was charged with allegedly failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.1 million) in taxable income from 2018. Spanish prosecutors have also accused Shakira of allegedly using an offshore company to “avoid” paying the tax.
The officials have reportedly notified the 46-year-old in Miami, where she has recently moved following her split from Gerard Piqué, 36. No official trial date has been set for the latest charges against Shakira. However, she is set to be tried in Barcelona on November 20 for the separate tax fraud charges against her. In 2022, prosecutors in Spain accused the mother-of-two of allegedly failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($15 million) in taxes while living in the country from 2012 to 2014.
At the time of the 2022 investigation, Shakira’s rep told Reuters that she “is fully confident of her innocence” and that she considered the investigation to be “a total violation of her rights.” In addition, her PR firm told NBC News last July that Shakira has “always acted in concordance with the law and on the advice of her financial advisers.” The blonde beauty had not released a statement on the latest charges at the time of this publication.
If the Grammy winner is found guilty for the 2022 charges, she could potentially face up to eight years in prison. In September 2022, a rep for Shakira told HollywoodLife that the trial was “standard” procedure. “The judge’s order for the commencement of trial is simply another step in the standard procedure. The situation has not changed, and everything continues to run its course,” they penned in the note. “Shakira’s legal defense will do its job by delivering its counterargument at the appropriate time, which is called the statement of defense.”
Shakira continued to assert her innocence in a November 2022 statement to Daily Mail. “Shakira is a taxpayer who has always shown impeccable tax conduct and has never had tax problems in any other jurisdiction,” a statement read last year. “With no solid evidence to support the charges against her, she has been fiercely persecuted in the criminal and media spheres using unacceptable methods to damage her reputation and force her to come to a settlement agreement.”
Despite the recent charges against her, Shakira took to Instagram on September 26 to celebrate her latest song “El Jefe” in collaboration with Fuerza Regida. “This is so cute I just had to be in it! @belladose #ElJefe,” she captioned a video of herself edited into dancing with a group of her fans. The new track was released on September 20, following her VMA win September 12.