Samuel Eto'o when he played for Barcelona in April 2006. Archive image.
(Credit: Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
(Reuters) -
Former Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o received a 22-month suspended prison sentence in a Spanish court on Monday, after admitting tax fraud of approximately $4 million (3.8 million euros) while He played for the FC Barcelona team.
Eto'o agreed to pay a fine of 1.8 million euros and the 3.8 million taxes he owed for image rights between 2006 and 2009.
“I admit the facts and I will pay what corresponds to me.
But let it be known that I was a child then and that I always did what my former agent José María Mesalles, whom I considered a father, asked me to do at that time," Eto'o, now 41, told the court. in Barcelona this Monday.
Mesalles received a one-year suspended prison sentence.
The Prosecutor's Office had requested sentences of four years and six months in prison, each, for Eto'o and Mesalles.
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The prison sentences were suspended, as neither Eto'o nor Mesalles have criminal records and the terms are less than two years.
Samuel Eto'o