Arantxa Sánchez Vicario has emerged more or less successfully from the trial she faced last September for hiding assets to avoid paying a million-dollar debt with the Bank of Luxembourg.
This Wednesday, January 17, the criminal court number 25 of Barcelona has sentenced the former tennis player, who admitted the facts, to two years in prison for a crime of taking property, a sentence that she will not serve because the sentence has left her in suspense.
At the trial, the Roland Garros champion blamed the operation on her ex-husband, Josep Santacana, with whom she also has a long dispute in the United States.
The judge concludes that the businessman, who defended his innocence until the end, led the maneuvers to avoid paying the debt.
His sentence, for the same crime, is higher: three years and three months in prison.
Both must compensate the banking entity with the payment of 6.6 million euros, corresponding to the unpaid debt plus interest.
The sentence is not final and can be appealed;
Given that the penalties are not too high, it is highly unlikely that the Prosecutor's Office will consider requesting Santacana's imprisonment pending a final resolution.
The resolution, in fact, suspends for two years the execution of the sentence imposed on Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (but not on Santacana), which means that she will not have to go to prison with the condition that, in the next two years, do not commit another crime.
In addition to the ex-couple, three other people have been sentenced (to one year and three months in prison) who acted as front men in the operation to get rid of the capital.
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The ruling considers it “fully proven” that the former tennis player “had and at all times had sufficient assets to cover the debt” claimed by the Bank of Luxembourg.
The then couple, however, carried out “sale actions” of the player's real estate assets to avoid paying.
The judge sets a lower sentence for her because she “has assumed her responsibility for the facts.”
The reduction of the sentence is based on two mitigating circumstances: confession and reparation for the damage, since throughout the criminal process she has made her income available to the court to pay the debt.
“Full knowledge” of the former tennis player
At the trial, Arantxa assumed her fault, but blamed her husband and assured that he was the one who convinced her not to pay the Bank of Luxembourg.
The judge gives full credibility, in that sense, to her version.
Starting in 2009, a year after getting married, the businessman “managed his wife's assets” and was the person who “devised and carried out the de-assets operations.”
For the court, it is “absolutely credible” that Arantxa “had no knowledge of asset management, nor probably any interest, and that he had always transferred the management of his assets to third parties.”
Remember, for example, that Santacana had worked in the real estate sector, so she had “knowledge” in that matter.
But she cannot be acquitted because, apart from having recognized the facts, she “had full knowledge of what was being done with her assets and was enjoying it.”
The Prosecutor's Office initially requested four years in prison for a crime of confiscation of assets for both Sánchez Vicario and Santacana, in a court case that is closely related to the former tennis player's problems with the Treasury.
In 2009, the Supreme Court sentenced her to pay a fine of 5.2 million for tax fraud.
The Tax Agency managed to collect that sum thanks to a guarantee from the Bank of Sabadell which, in turn, recovered the money through a counter-guarantee signed with the Bank of Luxembourg, where a good part of the fortune accumulated during his sporting career had been deposited.
This last entity claimed the money from the player on numerous occasions, but apparently her assets had evaporated.
She then decided to go to court.
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, upon leaving the Barcelona courts, on September 12, 2023. ALBERT GEA (REUTERS)
The Prosecutor's thesis (accepted by Arantxa) is that the couple got rid of assets (especially real estate) to avoid paying the debt.
The player then owned around fifteen properties, including luxury homes in Barcelona, the Costa Brava and the Catalan Pyrenees.
Under Santacana's "slogans" and through front men, the couple sold those properties and transferred the profits to companies in the United States managed by the businessman.
Two years before the trial, with the investigation of the case already completed, the three-time Roland Garros champion took a radical turn in her defense strategy.
In order to achieve a reduction in the sentence, she assumed part of the blame: she admitted that she hid assets, but said that she did so following clear and precise instructions from her ex-partner, whom she presented as as a “victim.”
It was the beginning of a strategy that culminated in the trial, when she attacked Santacana head-on: “I wanted to pay, but he told me no.
What better than paying the bank was for us to have the money.
I trusted him.
I regret".
Their strategy was to achieve a reduction in the sentence, as has happened, through repentance and reparation for the damage.
Arantxa assured, in an interview with this newspaper, that she makes a living by giving private tennis lessons in Miami (USA), where she resides with her two children, and that half of everything she earns goes to the coffers of the Bank of Luxembourg.
Since the criminal process began, she has handed over 1.9 million and is willing to pay off the entire debt.
The approach already gave good results in the trial: in the last session, the Prosecutor's Office reduced the player's prison request to two years, while maintaining Santacana's request at four.
The businessman, for her part, remained firm in defending her innocence and charged against the former tennis player and her family.
According to his version, she still has hidden money, companies and real estate.