World Footballer of the Year, Lionel Messi has ordered his legal team to
pursue legal action against Panama Papers after they accused him of
seeking refuge in Panama's tax haven, claims Messi's camp has dismissed
as “false and libelous.”
The Panama Report reported that the
Barcelona star used Panamanian company. Mega Star Enterprises to avoid
paying tax on image rights deals.
Magazine
El Confidencial published documents signed by Lionel Mssi and his father
Jorge buying Mega Star Enterprises, via a Uruguayan buffer company and
this was just a day after Spanish Financial authorities indicted the
Argentina striker in a case of €4million in unpaid taxes.
Read Messi's statement in full below...
"In
response to the news released by various media outlets in which Lionel
Messi is held responsible for the forming of a company with the aim of
'putting in place a new web of tax fraud', the Messi family wishes to
make it clear that Lionel Messi has not carried out any of the actions
he is accused of, the accusations of having ‘created a new web of tax
fraud’ and, even, money laundering, are false and libellous," the
statement read.
"The Panamian company referred
to in the reports is a completely inactive company, which never held
open accounts nor funds and which comes from the former company
structure put in place by Messi's previous financial advisers, the
fiscal consequences of which have already been normalised, with all the
income that comes from exploitation of his image rights, prior to and
after the procedure carried out in the courts, having been declared
before the Spanish Treasury.
"With
respect to the above, the Messi family have given instructions to their
lawyers to analyse eventual legal action against the sources that have
published these claims."
