Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1025219
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 SEPTEMBER 2018 20 FOOTBALL SPORTS Marcelo slapped with four-month prison term and €750,000 fine in tax fraud case The 30-year-old is latest player to be charged with using offshore accounts to shelter income from image rights REAL Madrid and Brazil de- fender Marcelo has accepted a four-month suspended prison sentence and a €750,000 fine as part of a deal to settle a Span- ish tax fraud case, according to publication El Mundo. The 30-year-old will not spend time in prison, however, with Spanish law stating that a sentence of under two years for a first offence can be served on probation. The Brazilian becomes the latest figure in Spanish football to suffer sanctions for defraud- ing the tax authority. Lionel Messi exchanged his 21-month prison sentence for a €250,000 fine, while Cristiano Ronaldo had to agree to a two- year suspended sentence and a €19 million fine. Jose Mourinho, Luka Modric, Javier Mascherano and Angel Di Maria have also cut deals with prosecutors. Marcelo will appear in court to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion in order to avoid jail time and reduce the fine. The Brazil international was ac- cused of evading the payment of €1 million after the transfer of his image rights to a Uru- guayan company called Birsen Trade SA that he used to evade the tax payment to the Spanish treasury. The former Fluminense player admitted to handing his affairs to a company that "lacks the human and mate- rial resources to carry out its functions", and the authori- ties ruled that he had evaded taxes worth approximately €500,000. The tax agency also accused Marcelo of evading the pay- ment of €100,476 and €101,615 in the years of 2011 and 2012 but this will only entail a sanc- tion by administrative way of about €150,000. Taking the full fines and in- terest into account, Marcelo will have to pay almost €1 mil- lion to free himself from legal trouble. A four-time Champions League winner with the San- tiago Bernabeu outfit, Marcelo joined Madrid in 2007 and has since made over 450 appear- ances for the club. However, after Ronaldo's summer move to Juventus, the full-back has been linked with a move to Serie A to reunite with the Portuguese icon.