Barcelona’s Gerard Pique will be forced to pay 2.1 million euros ($2.36 million) to Spain’s tax authorities after his conviction for rights-image fraud was confirmed, a legal source told AFP on Wednesday.
According to a May 13 decision the country’s National Court rejected Pique’s appeal against the 2016 sentence which required the former Spain international to pay 1.5 million euros in tax arrears and a 600,000 euros fine.
The tribunal concluded Pique had faked the handover of his rights images to his Kerad Project company to pay less tax for 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Pique, a World Cup and European Championships winner retains the right to appeal to Spain’s supreme court.
The verdict comes a month after his wife, Colombian musician Shakira, was questioned by a judge near the Catalan city over alleged evasion of 14.5 million euros in taxes.
Her press team released a statement in which they said the artist was innocent.
The centre-back’s former teammate at the Camp Nou Neymar is under investigation by Spain’s fiscal authorities over a bonus he received at Barca as well as his world-record transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.
