Jorge Messi: jail looms over tax fraud

Barcelona’s public prosecutor is pushing for jail sentence of up to 18 months and fines of more than two million euros for superstar Lionel Messi’s father on tax fraud charges.

However the official also restated that the footballer should not be prosecuted himself since it was his father who was in charge of his finances at the time.

The charges are that the state was defrauded of 4.2 million euros for the years 2007-2009 by the use of a web of shell companies.

The court overseeing the case already rejected Messi’s appeal last year and ruled that he could have approved the creation of the companies.

Messi and his father have already paid 5 million euros in corrective payments since they were charged in 2013.