Today, the singer Shakira sits on the bench of the Court in Barcelona, ​​accused of defrauding the state treasury for 14.5 million between 2012 and 2014, for which the prosecution is asking her to be sentenced to eight years and two months in prison, with the door open. to the pact.

This morning at 10 o’clock in Barcelona’s Palace of Justice, the beginning of the singer’s trial is scheduled, even with the possibility of an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Tax Administration and the Generalitat – the specific charges in the case – that they will reduce his minimum sentence in exchange for admitting fraud before the court.

If a settlement is reached, the trial would be reduced to a brief trial in which the Colombian artist would have to plead guilty to defrauding the Treasury and ratify a plea deal that would guarantee she would stay out of jail in exchange for paying a $1 million fine.

Under the projected scenario, unless a last-minute deal prevents that, the hearing will begin with preliminary questions, which Shakira’s defense could use to ask the court to have the singer testify at the end of the hearing. trial, after witnesses and expert testimony, and to be absent from the hearing until the day of their examination.

The trial, which will take place in the sixth part under the chairmanship of Judge José Manuel del Amo, is expected to last twelve hearings: November 20, 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30 and December 4, 5, 11 , 12, 13 and 14, dates that are subject to possible changes to the agenda at the last moment.

Up to 117 witnesses, along with expert witnesses and tax inspectors, will appear in court over the next two months to determine whether, as prosecutors claim, the Colombian artist feigned tax residency in the Bahamas to avoid paying her tax obligations to the Spanish treasury.

This is not the only judicial front that the singer has opened due to alleged tax evasion: the court in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) has been investigating her since last July after another report by the Prosecutor’s Office accusing her of having defrauded more than HRK six million in personal income tax and income tax wealth for 2018, using a corporate network based in tax havens.

In the trial that begins today, the prosecutor’s office in Barcelona is seeking eight years and two months in prison and a fine of 23.8 million for the artist for six crimes against the public treasury that individually do not exceed two years in prison, which opens the door for him, if convicted , the court suspends entry to prison.

Shakira has already returned the 14.5 million requested from her by the Tax Administration and three more for interest, so the prosecutor’s office applied the highly qualified mitigating circumstance of repairing the damage to reduce the sentence.

The thesis on which the Prosecutor’s Office bases its accusation of tax fraud is that the singer lived in Spain “habitually” between 2012 and 2014: first in Barcelona, ​​and then in a house in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) that she bought with her. former partner Gerard Piqué, through the company.

According to the public ministry, that home represented the family home of the artist, whose stays outside Spain during that time were for “professional reasons, of very short duration”, with the exception of the season in which she participated in the American program. “The Voice” (61 days in 2012, 118 in 2013 and 117 in 2014).

In this way, according to the Public Ministry, the accused remained in Spain effectively for 242 days in 2012, 212 in 2013 and 243 in 2014, in all cases above the 183 days in the year in which, according to the law, she was a tax resident of Spain, with by having to pay taxes in this country on all your worldwide income, regardless of where it is earned.

To avoid paying taxes in Spain, the prosecution added, Shakira “used a corporate network”, based in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Malta, Panama and Luxembourg, which hid her income and assets from the Spanish and Catalan tax authorities.

A criterion disputed by the defense conducted by Barcelona-based law firm Molins, which claims it has “reliable” evidence that the artist was a tax resident in the Bahamas from 2004 until the end of 2014, when she settled in Barcelona as a result of her relationship with the footballer Gerard Pique.

In order to clarify how many days the winner of the last Grammys spent in Spain, the testimony of witnesses will be key, including neighbors, employees of the beauty center she went to, her two gynecologists and hairdresser, and even her Zumba teachers. fitness.

The list of witnesses, which does not include her ex Gerard Piqué, but her former partner Antonio de la Rúa, also includes famous people from the world of music or football, such as the brothers José and David Muñoz from Estopo, Maná singer Fernando Olvera or chef Hideki Matsuhisa.