Messi condemned to 21 months in jail for tax fraud (suspended sentence)

[Scandale du Jour]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36721892

Holy shizzle! Not very surprising as we knew for a while that it was going on, but I never expected him to be found guilty.

I know he won't serve any time, but will it affect his ability to participate in the CL?

Click to read more...

 

[Luigi Habs]

What a bad couple of weeks for him.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Doubt it changes anything. The people who love him will keep doing so and the people who hate him will keep doing so.

 

[Suiteness]

Why do they say he's condemned to jail when a suspended sentence means he'll never set a foot in there?

 

[Vipers31]

Why do they say he's condemned to jail when a suspended sentence means he'll never set a foot in there?

Because that's the way verdicts tend to have it (at least in the jurisdictions I know). They mention the verdict first, and seperately/independently decide whether the sentence is to be suspended for given sets of reasons.

But yeah, for the average person reading headlines, it is obviously a key part. OP did better than the clickbait headlines by legitimate publications that didn't mention that part, at all.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Doubt it changes anything. The people who love him will keep doing so and the people who hate him will keep doing so.

It shouldn't change anything. Doesn't make him a bad person or anything. I am pretty sure he has limited knowledge of how his taxes are handled. The guy is a crack football player, he is not an accountant. Someone probably told him (and his dad) doing XYZ would save him money and he (his dad) said "Okay". I very much doubt he handles his own finances. From my understanding, his father does.

I guess pretty much all pro-athletes could be looked at for tax evasion. Messi is just the biggest fish in the world, tempting to go after him I guess. I am pretty sure there is a big political side to it all (Messi being an icon in Catalonia).

 

[Luigi Habs]

I got confirmation from trusted sources that the judge is a real madrid fan

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I got confirmation from trusted sources that the judge is a real madrid fan

Come on, get your facts straight. The judge was Perez himself.

 

[Power Man]

Come on, get your facts straight. The judge was Perez himself.

If Perez was the judge, Messi would be in a gulag right now

So no it's not him

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

I find it funny that we talk about Messi quitting Argentina because their FA is full of corrupt, self-serving officials. I guess Messi is more in tune with that 'Argentinian way' than his fans want to admit to themselves.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Hmmm

 

[Power Man]

Lol that statement

Did Excuxavi write it?

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

That statement is pretty bad. It's just a lot of noise that's designed to convince Barca fans that Messi is a victim of a Real Madrid - and probably Francoist (lol) - conspiracy against him.

 

[YNWA14]

Ignorantia juris non excusat. Last time I checked ignorance or 'lack of education' isn't a defence in the eyes of the law.

Call him uneducated or ignorant all you want, but realistically speaking when you have that much money you should really take a more active interest in what's going on with it. Especially since these cases are not few and far between; it happens all the time.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

That statement is pretty bad. It's just a lot of noise that's designed to convince Barca fans that Messi is a victim of a Real Madrid - and probably Francoist (lol) - conspiracy against him.

The statement basically concludes with: Messi is a victim of Perez, LOOK HOW PEREZ IS CORRUPT!!!!!!!!!!!!

If they want to send Perez to jail though, I will be pretty happy.

 

[Panteras]

another celebrity that commits a crime for which he won't serve a single day, making us poor ******** feel better about the system : )

 

[Vipers31]

Ignorantia juris non excusat. Last time I checked ignorance or 'lack of education' isn't a defence in the eyes of the law.

That phrase isn't all encompassing, to be fair. It mainly refers to not knowing a certain act is against the law not being a defense. Not knowing what somebody else is doing in your name can absolutely be a defence. When you end up signing off on everything it becomes hard to create a reasonable doubt about you really not knowing anything, though.

 

[Luigi Habs]

If I had an advice to give to Messi right now would be to change club this summer.

After the devastating loss at the copa aamerica and this, he must feel terrible, and probably lost motivation. A change of scenery with a fresh start would bring him some motivation.

Btw McSorleyStick deserves a McSorley stick to the head with his annoying hatred toward the greatest player to ever play the game.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

If I had an advice to give to Messi right now would be to change club this summer.

After the devastating loss at the copa aamerica and this, he must feel terrible, and probably lost motivation. A change of scenery with a fresh start would bring him some motivation.

Btw McSorleyStick deserves a McSorley stick to the head with his annoying hatred toward the greatest player to ever play the game.

If he were to change club, the Spanish Supreme court would likely vacate his sentence on appeal.

I wish I were kidding, but I am not.

 

[Power Man]

I find it funny that we talk about Messi quitting Argentina because their FA is full of corrupt, self-serving officials. I guess Messi is more in tune with that 'Argentinian way' than his fans want to admit to themselves.

That statement is pretty bad. It's just a lot of noise that's designed to convince Barca fans that Messi is a victim of a Real Madrid - and probably Francoist (lol) - conspiracy against him.

Ignorantia juris non excusat. Last time I checked ignorance or 'lack of education' isn't a defence in the eyes of the law.

Call him uneducated or ignorant all you want, but realistically speaking when you have that much money you should really take a more active interest in what's going on with it. Especially since these cases are not few and far between; it happens all the time.

another celebrity that commits a crime for which he won't serve a single day, making us poor ******** feel better about the system : )

 

[Ceremony]

Should have just said the money was in his dog's account.

 

[MurrayBannerman]

Or, better yet, his lion, Lion Messi. Try getting the cash from a lion, suckers.

 

[XO]

Got away easy

 

[les Habs]

Hmmm

Not sure your source for this, but there is a lot of good information here.

The big difference here between Messi's case (and Mascherano's as well) is how they're going after them. I'm not up to speed on some of the people mentioned in that dialogue, but what have you read about any of those cases? Who was prosecuted to this extent? I just did a quick search and apparently Mourinho did have to pay back taxes for seemingly the exact same thing (and he's also apparently lied about other things to avoid paying taxes), but was he ever handed such a sentence? No. And it's not like we're talking a big difference in terms of the sums they failed to pay in taxes and fines. In addition to that, as I already noted about a month ago or so, the Public Prosecutor called for the acquittal of Messi.

As for this Marta Silva Lapuerta, I've read that she is not only a former employee of Real Madrid between 2000 and 2006, but she's also a close friend of Florentino Perez. She also has had other ties which involve politics as the above notes and from what I can surmise has let other cases go as a result. And since somebody mentioned Franco, her father was a Franco Public Works Minister as noted above. Anyway, she is apparently responsible for it going this far despite again the Public Prosecutor calling for Messi's acquittal. Same goes for the Neymar case with the club. This is just like the transfer ban where the Madrid club member was on the disciplinary committee in that instance.

I don't think Messi pays 50% of 200 million every year, but I'd be shocked if he hasn't easily paid more than 100 million in taxes. Anyway, as that notes, Perez surely has underhanded **** all over the place that has nothing to do with football. If you lived in Spain you'd probably have heard this years ago. In fact he had to testify in a corruption case that involved the former Secretary General of the People's Party, a party that this Marta Silva Lapuerta apparently contributed to and had conflicts of interest in the case as a result of her previously employment As for what is to do with football, Perez is clearly behind a lot of **** like this. He's even asked for journalists to be fired because he didn't like what they wrote.

At the end of the day Messi surely didn't pay all the taxes he should have. How much he knew about that can be debated and I'm not convinced he was entirely ignorant (though I doubt he knew the ins and outs of it all or even the extent). However he's clearly not the only person to have done this as the Mourinho incident demonstrates, though he's very clearly been prosecuted differently (as has Mascherano).

I have a mate who is a Professor and who has lived in Barcelona for three decades now and he always calls Spain "a Third World country" because of things like this.

If I had an advice to give to Messi right now would be to change club this summer.

After the devastating loss at the copa aamerica and this, he must feel terrible, and probably lost motivation. A change of scenery with a fresh start would bring him some motivation.

Btw McSorleyStick deserves a McSorley stick to the head with his annoying hatred toward the greatest player to ever play the game.

That's good advice and he should probably take it. No way this sort of double standard would going on in another country where he'd likely end up playing. Of course were he to leave because of this, something that apparently is part of Mascherano's wanting to leave, it would be exactly what they want.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Not sure your source for this, but there is a lot of good information here.

The big difference here between Messi's case (and Mascherano's as well) is how they're going after them. I'm not up to speed on some of the people mentioned in that dialogue, but what have you read about any of those cases? Who was prosecuted to this extent? I just did a quick search and apparently Mourinho did have to pay back taxes for seemingly the exact same thing (and he's also apparently lied about other things to avoid paying taxes), but was he ever handed such a sentence? No. And it's not like we're talking a big difference in terms of the sums they failed to pay in taxes and fines. In addition to that, as I already noted about a month ago or so, the Public Prosecutor called for the acquittal of Messi.

As for this Marta Silva Lapuerta, I've read that she is not only a former employee of Real Madrid between 2000 and 2006, but she's also a close friend of Florentino Perez. She also has had other ties which involve politics as the above notes and from what I can surmise has let other cases go as a result. And since somebody mentioned Franco, her father was a Franco Public Works Minister as noted above. Anyway, she is apparently responsible for it going this far despite again the Public Prosecutor calling for Messi's acquittal. Same goes for the Neymar case with the club. This is just like the transfer ban where the Madrid club member was on the disciplinary committee in that instance.

I don't think Messi pays 50% of 200 million every year, but I'd be shocked if he hasn't easily paid more than 100 million in taxes. Anyway, as that notes, Perez surely has underhanded **** all over the place that has nothing to do with football. If you lived in Spain you'd probably have heard this years ago. In fact he had to testify in a corruption case that involved the former Secretary General of the People's Party, a party that this Marta Silva Lapuerta apparently contributed to and had conflicts of interest in the case as a result of her previously employment As for what is to do with football, Perez is clearly behind a lot of **** like this. He's even asked for journalists to be fired because he didn't like what they wrote.

At the end of the day Messi surely didn't pay all the taxes he should have. How much he knew about that can be debated and I'm not convinced he was entirely ignorant (though I doubt he knew the ins and outs of it all or even the extent). However he's clearly not the only person to have done this as the Mourinho incident demonstrates, though he's very clearly been prosecuted differently (as has Mascherano).

I have a mate who is a Professor and who has lived in Barcelona for three decades now and he always calls Spain "a Third World country" because of things like this.



That's good advice and he should probably take it. No way this sort of double standard would going on in another country where he'd likely end up playing. Of course were he to leave because of this, something that apparently is part of Mascherano's wanting to leave, it would be exactly what they want.

Which would anger me. I want us to win because we deserve it, not because we got rid of Messi through backdoor politics. I love to tease you guys, but I am for good sportsmanship. That's not good sportsmanship.