Tax fraud : Ronaldo maintains silence

Cristiano Ronaldo has issued his first response to the tax fraud complaint made against him, saying sometimes the best answer is “to be quiet”
Ronaldo’s representatives have strongly denied an accusation that the Real Madrid forward concealed earnings and defrauded the Spanish tax authorities out of €14.7mil­lion.
Madrid expressed “full confidence” in the Por­tugal internation­al in a statement, and the 32-year-old has now is­sued his own re­sponse.

 

In making his comment on Ins­tagram, Ronaldo, who is preparing for the Confederations Cup, posted an image showing himself in a Por­tugal t-shirt with his finger to his lips, gestur­ing silence. The caption read: “Sometimes the best answer is to be quiet.”

Prosecutors in Madrid filed a complaint to a court in Pozuelo de Alarcon on Tuesday that accused the four-time Ballon d’Or win­ner of a “voluntary” and “conscious” breach of his tax obligations.

 

The complaint alleged Ronaldo created a “business structure” in 2010 to conceal earn­ings from image rights between 2011 and 2014.

However, Gestifute – the compa­ny owned by the 32-year-old’s agent Jorge Mendes – released a statement detailing their client’s arrangements for payments related to his image rights and insisted “there has nev­er been concealment or the slightest intention to con­ceal”.

 

Gestifute said the company, Tollin, does not amount to an off­shore structure for evading taxes and was es­tablished in 2004 when Ron­aldo signed for Manchester United.

Madrid have offered him their support and be­lieve he will be proved in­nocent of any wrongdoing. -The Authority