Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi’s appeal to overturn a tax fraud case involving his father Jorge has been rejected, according to Spanish sports establishment AS.
The judge presiding over the case found that the Argentinian should have been aware of how personal financial matters were being handled by his father, the report went on to say.
Lionel Messi had already made an appearance in a Spanish court in September 2013 in Gava, where he had made it clear that he did not look after any details of his personal finances.
The case centers around ‘image rights payments’ which the Barca forward received after the funds were funelled through off shore tax havens, in an attempt to avoid the payment of full taxes in Spain.
Upon discovering what had happened, the Messi family had initially paid millions of euros in an attempt to pay back the unpaid taxes from previous years.
This, however, has not prevented a criminal case from being continued against both Messi Jr. and Messi Sr.
This was not the first tax fraud case to hit the Argentine’s current club, as earlier this year Barcelona were charged by Spanish authorities following their signing of Neymar Jr. from Brazilian outfit Santos.
Though the Spanish champions claimed to not have done anything wrong, they had to settle an £11.2 million payment, following which former club president Sandro Rosell resigned.
Barca paid £48.6 million for Neymar Jr. in the summer of 2013, of which £34m reportedly went to his parents; Messi, meanwhile, grew up through the academy at the club since he was a child back in 2000.
Other posts by Keeshaanan Sundaresan
