BARCELONA: A Spanish court said on Thursday that it has launched new investigations into Colombian pop singer Shakira for alleged income tax fraud.
The 46-year-old “Hips Don’t Lie” singer is already due to face trial at the end of the year in Spain for allegedly failing to pay 16.3 million dollars in taxes on income earned from 2012 to 2014.
Now a court in the Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona said it had decided to probe two possible cases of tax fraud by the singer from 2018. It did not provide further details, AFP reported.
Shakira, who now lives in Miami, has denied time and again any wrongdoing and claims she owes nothing to the tax office in Spain.
Her representatives said Shakira has not yet been notified of the new probe, which they said she learned about through the media.
They said in a statement that as Shakira has already said many times, she has always acted in accordance with the law and the advice of the best tax experts.
Shakira focuses on career
They added that the singer is now focused on her career in Miami and is calm and confident that her tax issues would be resolved favourably.
Prosecutors are seeking for an eight-year sentence and fine of twenty-four million euros in the first case after the singer rejected a plea agreemnet over the allegations of tax evasion.
That case centres on where Shakira lived between 2012 and 2014. Prosecutors allege teh singer spent more than half of that time in Spain and should have paid taxes there.
They claim that Shakira moved to Spain in 2011 when her relationship with Gerard Pique, FC Barcelona defender, became public, but kept official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015.
Shakira’s legal counsels have said that until 2014 the singer earned most of her money from international tours and shifted to Spain full time only in 2015, and has met all her tax obligations.
