Messi denies tax evasion

BARCELONA. — Barcelona forward Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi’s family have denied Spanish media reports that arose following the leak ...

BARCELONA. — Barcelona forward Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi’s family have denied Spanish media reports that arose following the leak of the “Panama Papers” that said he was involved in a tax evasion scheme.

Governments across the world began investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful on Monday after a leak of four decades of documents from a Panamanian law firm that specialised in setting up offshore companies.

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi

The so-called “Panama Papers” revealed the financial arrangements of global political and public figures.

While holding money in offshore companies is not illegal, Messi (28) was on Sunday accused by Spanish newspaper El Confidencial of creating a company with the aim of evading tax.

Meanwhile, banned UEFA president Michel Platini’s Panamanian bank account was declared to the authorities in Switzerland, where he lives, his lawyer said in an interview published by French newspaper Le Figaro yesterday.

“Holding bank accounts through companies is not illegal as long as they are declared, which was the case here,” the lawyer was cited as saying. — Reuters.

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