Shakira changes strategy to avoid trial for tax fraud after separating from Gerard Piqué

Shakira no longer wants to continue fighting the fight she maintains with the justice for the alleged fraud in the payment of taxes.

The Colombian singer has decided to change her strategy.

Her goal now is to avoid at all costs undergoing a trial that would entail enormous public exposure at a time when she intends to go unnoticed.

That is why she has commissioned her team of lawyers to seek an agreement with the State Attorney's Office —which defends the interests of the Treasury— and with the Prosecutor's Office that allows her to avoid jail in exchange for accepting that she defrauded and paying a millionaire fine.

Personal and legal circumstances have led Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll to take the step and lower her arms.

Last May, the Barcelona Court dealt a final blow to the path of confrontation by knocking down the last resort of the singer.

The magistrates concluded that, between 2012 and 2014, Shakira spent most of her time in Spain and, therefore, she had to pay her taxes here.

The credit card payments, the visits to establishments or the photos that she herself posted on social networks prove it.

In 2012, in addition, she bought a house, rented a recording studio and followed the pregnancy of her first child, Milan, in a clinic in Barcelona.

The magistrates thus left her one step away from the dock for a fraud of 14.5 million euros.

The Prosecutor's Office is expected to present her indictment before August, according to judicial sources.

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Shakira and Gerard Piqué announce that they are separating after 12 years of relationship

The rupture of his relationship with Gerard Piqué is the other factor that has triggered the turn.

The Barça footballer was the main supporter of the hard line, that is, of maintaining the fight until the end because he believed that he could win the case.

He himself fought to the last consequences in his litigation with the Tax Agency, which imposed a fine of 2.1 million euros for the transfer of his image rights to a company to pay less taxes.

He won.

In December 2021, the Supreme Court agreed with him and annulled the fine.

Without Piqué, and with other plans for her future —which, according to some media, include establishing her residence in Miami (USA)—, Shakira intends to close a judicial chapter that “affects her emotionally a lot”, sources close to the artist specify. .

The player's separation, who was "her main point of support on this issue", has made the singer's priority to avoid undergoing a trial that could last days or weeks, which is public and would involve great media pressure.

In addition, a multitude of witnesses would parade through the courtroom who would air circumstances of his private life (which hairdresser he went to, what medical visits he made, what acts he attended) for the simple reason that the core of the judicial process is, precisely, show if you lived more than half of the year in Spain and, therefore,

should be considered tax resident in this country.

The defense has used, without success, a certificate of tax residence in the Bahamas, where, according to the inspector who handled the case, he never went.

This was Gerard Piqué and Shakira's first photo together, where they pose with, among others, Carles Puyol, Piqué's partner, and his girlfriend, Malena Costa, and with the singer's makeup artist, Beatriz Matallana (next to her), during the celebration of the birthdays of Piqué and Shakira, in a photograph that Piqué posted on Twitter in 2011. With it they broke the exclusive intended by many media, who sought to photograph them together before they announced their relationship, something they did in March 2011.

Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué hugs and kisses his girlfriend, the singer Shakira, to the delight of his teammates, Busquets, Bojan, Villa and Xavi (from right to left), during the concert that the singer gave at the Lluís stadium Companys from Barcelona to celebrate Barça winning the Champions League after defeating Manchester 3-1 in May 2011. It was one of the first public appearances they made showing their love.GIANLUCA BATTISTA

Carlos Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets and Shakira, together at a press conference in Florida, USA, which brought together the Pies Descalzos Foundation, founded by the singer, and FC Barcelona, ​​in one of the first public acts that the The couple got together on August 1, 2011, just six months after making their relationship known. John Parra (WireImage)

Shakira and Gerard Piqué arrive hand in hand at the FIFA Ballon d'Or award ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, in January 2012. Alexander Hassenstein - FIFA (FIFA via Getty Images)

Shakira and Gerard Pique in the quarterfinals of the basketball world cup that pitted the USA against Slovenia in Barcelona in September 2014. Albert Gea (REUTERS)

In December 2012, Shakira and Piqué launched this half-naked image in collaboration with Unicef, for which the singer is a goodwill ambassador.

They were expecting the birth of their first child, a boy named Milan who would come into the world on January 22, 2013. With the photograph, the couple invited "friends and followers" to participate in their 'online baby shower' to buy emergency items for children in developing countries. AP

The first image that could be seen of the couple's first child, Milan Piqué Mebarak, was this one that Gerard Piqué posted on his Instagram account.

His second son, Sasha, would arrive two years later, in January 2015.- (EFE)

Gerard Pique and Shakira hug and pose with the Copa del Rey won by FC Barcelona against Atlético de Bilbao at the Camp Nou, in May 2015. David Ramos (Getty Images)

Shakira and Gerard Piqué, in the Davis Cup tennis final between Spain and Canada held at the Caja Mágica in Madrid on November 24, 2019. Alex Pantling (Getty Images)

On September 5, 2019, Shakira and Piqué were photographed in New York during the Davis Cup tennis presentation, organized by Kosmos, the company of the Barcelona soccer player. BRYAN R. SMITH (AFP)

The last image of the couple together dates from October 14, 2021, when they were seen with their children at an event held in Tarragona, Spain.VIEW press (Corbis via Getty Images)

On May 25, 2022, Shakira made her last public appearance upon her arrival at the screening of 'Elvis' during the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, in France. GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO (EFE)

It will not be easy to reach an agreement.

The so-called consent sentences —in which the defendant accepts the sentence, generally in exchange for a reduction that prevents him from going to prison— are the usual formula with which tax fraud cases are resolved, especially when they affect personalities public.

There are exceptions, like that of the writer Ildefonso Falcones, but it is the general route.

A few days ago, without going any further, former Barça striker Samuel Eto'o accepted a sentence of less than two years in prison when the Prosecutor's Office initially requested more than 10. Shakira's problem is that the Prosecutor's Office will accuse her of six tax crimes because he defrauded in two taxes (personal income tax and equity) in each of the three years.

Lowering the sentence to less than two years —which allows requesting the suspension of its execution, that is, avoiding imprisonment— will be more complicated.

In general, the accusations apply mitigating circumstances (acknowledgment of the facts, repair of the damage and others) to make it possible, since the fundamental objective is not to imprison the famous person, but to collect what was defrauded (Shakira has already consigned the 14.5 million euros in court) and impose a large fine that generates income for the public coffers.

His defense is now turning to that mission of reaching a good agreement, or at least one acceptable to Shakira.

The change in strategy has also caused a dance of names, so that some lawyers —those most prone to negotiation— have gained weight and others have lost it.

The possibility of an agreement was always present, from the first minute, but she decided to fight the battle knowing that at any moment she could get off the car: most of these agreements, in fact, are closed at the last minute, just before head to the courtroom.

The strategy of fighting allows you to buy time and explore the possibility of a quick victory, but it also subjects the protagonist to more wear and tear: the artist had to go to testify three years ago.

Before the judge, she stuck to the script and assured that until 2015 she did not live permanently in Spain because she, because of her work, was "a nomad without roots."

Shakira's defense is beginning to knock on the door of the accusations.

She does it with the utmost reserve and discretion so that the process does not derail.

If there is an agreement, she will still go to trial, but it will be a blink of an eye, just enough to say out loud that she accepts the facts and, perhaps, hear from the judge that she should not go to jail.