When Shakira took the stage at the Seville Conference Center to accept the Latin Grammy for Best Pop Song alongside Bizarrap, she had already made a decision that, in reality, she had been meditating on for the last five years of her life. “I want to dedicate it to my children because I promised them that I would be happy,” said the Colombian singer, who expressed her desire to close the wounds caused by the separation from former Barça defender Gerard Piqué are the lyrics of the award-winning song). But the news had a different meaning: Shakira would postpone, including for her children, the lawsuit for defrauding the Treasury of 14.5 million.
The gala took place on Thursday evening the 16th. The next day, in the afternoon, Shakira met in Barcelona with her lawyers from the law firm Molins & Silva with very clear ideas. He told them that he wanted to be happy for the sake of Milan and Sasha and that he no longer wanted to undergo the trial, as he had claimed until then. And he instructed them to reach an agreement with the accusations (prosecution, prosecution and generalitat), which had actually been on the table for a year and a half, when a first negotiation between the parties failed. There are hardly any differences between the first draft contract proposed in the summer of 2022 and the written agreement sealed last Monday in the Barcelona court. Shakira didn’t accept it at the time, partly because Piqué insisted she fight and because she preferred to keep her options open until the end.
Until the day after the Grammys, lawyers were preparing for the trial as if it was going to happen. They were confident of achieving a victory like the one they had won in the case of former motorcyclist Sito Pons, who was also accused of failing to pay taxes while a tax resident in Spain. At the Palace of Justice, 12 sessions and the appearance of 117 witnesses were scheduled who had professional and personal relationships with the singer between 2012 and 2014, when, according to the indictment, she was already living in Barcelona. Criminal defense attorney Míriam Company spent more than a week in Miami, where the artist lives with her children, preparing a statement to be presented in the first session on Monday. According to the court president, Shakira can then return to the USA and follow the trial electronically if she wishes.
Shakira, during her brief intervention in the trial to accept the verdict. Albert García
The best possible agreement
The possibility of a last-minute settlement, a common practice in tax crimes, was never lost sight of. But Shakira’s landing in Spain a few days before the Grammys gave that option more weight. The singer shared her doubts with her lawyers, which were more related to the media exposure of the trial and the wear and tear on her career than to fear of defeat. After warning them that he could change his mind at any time, he urged them to negotiate the pact discreetly while thoroughly preparing the battle over the calendar before the Treasury: the key to the case was always whether more than the prerequisite to to be considered tax residents.
Shakira meditated for a long time and, according to close sources, consulted figures from the world of music who advised her to reach an agreement and close a matter that, as she later said, had “stolen” her time and peace of mind since 2018, the prosecutor’s office filed the complaint submitted. He agreed to the pact reluctantly and at the last minute, which was not a problem since all parties already knew what the terms of any possible agreement were. What was offered in the summer of 2022 – and a year later, when Pau Molins took charge of the defense and resumed negotiations – still applied at the trial doors. The prosecution had no plans to move forward from there. If he accepted it, fine; but also.
By accepting the story of the accusation, Shakira became a tax fraudster (the verdict is final), but she was able to avoid trial and her prison sentence and fine were reduced. The public prosecutor initially requested a total of eight years and two months in prison and a fine of 23.5 million. After the agreement was sealed, he changed his writ by applying a mitigating circumstance of reparation of damages since he had paid more than 17 million: the defrauded fee and interest. The agreement calls for a total sentence of three years in prison (in reality, a minimum of six months for each of the six crimes) and a fine of 50% of the defrauded fee, or 7.2 million. According to court sources, this is all the prosecution can offer if a plea agreement is reached in these types of crimes. “It would have been virtually impossible to get anything better. “He hasn’t received any special treatment, but no better offers have been made,” explains Molins.
Criminal record
In addition to the money, another key point of the agreement was what happened to the prison sentence. The possibility of Shakira ending up behind bars was extremely slim, almost impossible. However, it remained to be seen whether the enforcement of this sentence would be suspended or replaced by a fine; It’s a very technical question, but with real life consequences. In general, for sentences of less than two years and without a criminal record, judges and courts suspend execution on the condition that no further crimes are committed within a certain period of time. In Shakira’s case, however, the sentence was not suspended, but was instead replaced by the payment of a fine of 432,000 euros.
The replacement is no longer provided for in the current wording of the Criminal Code, but was in force at the time of the events. Molins believes that this circumstance is more advantageous for his client and the great success of the agreement, because in the end “the penalty is a fine.” The singer has a green card that allows her to stay in the United States. In order to renew your residence permit, the authorities require a criminal record certificate. Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll will be placed on the Justice Department’s prison registry and by law cannot be expunged for three years. This document contains a number of data, including the offenses committed (six offenses against public finances) and the fact that these were replaced by a fine. With regard to the North American authorities, the lawyers point out that this substitution “will allow the best possible treatment” as it is more acceptable than a prison sentence.
Two pending cases
Molins is pleased that the pact satisfies his client, but partly regrets that he “couldn’t fight with swords raised during the trial.” He believes that, as with Sito Pons, he could have proven that Shakira could not be considered a tax resident in those years, despite the evidence collected by the tax authority. The lawyer unsuccessfully fought to exclude the 2012 financial year from the compliance decision, which would have benefited a second case that the singer still has pending in Spain, although she wants to put these problems behind her and forget about her time in Barcelona.
The tax authority also fined him for tax evasion in Spain in 2011, a year in which he made extraordinary profits from his “Sale el Sol” world tour. In contrast to the events of the following years, this year did not end on the criminal path, but only on the administrative side. Shakira had to pay the €60 million fine in order to appeal in a case she describes as “nonsense”. Although the verdict on the 14.5 million fraud includes the recognition that he has lived in Spain since 2012, it will not have any impact on the appeal since we are already waiting for the decision of the National Court.
Shakira also faces a second criminal trial for alleged tax fraud in Spain, which has just begun. The public prosecutor’s office has filed a complaint against her for evading the payment of six million euros in taxes in 2018 through a “network of companies” that allowed her to “simulate” the transfer of her music rights to ghost companies. Shakira thus avoided including part of the millions in income she earned thanks to the El Dorado music tour, which took her to 53 concerts in Europe, the United States and Latin America this year. Molins predicts that this process has a “good prognosis.” The public prosecutor’s office has initially asked Interpol to be informed about the complaint and the summons. It is foreseeable that this time she will be investigating them from Miami and will not have to travel to a Barcelona that only brings her bad news personally and fiscally.
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