MADRID, SPAIN — If Shakira is found guilty of tax evasion, Spanish prosecutors say they would seek an eight-and-a-half-year prison term for the Colombian pop diva.
There are allegations that Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, failed to pay the Spanish government 14.5 million euros in taxes between 2012 and 2014. According to the prosecution, a fine of 24 million euros is also on the table.
Shakira faces six accusations in the indictment. Prosecutors offered the artist a settlement proposal this week, but the musician refused it and decided to go to trial instead. An exact trial date has not yet been determined.
“Shakara has always cooperated and abided by the law, showing excellent conduct as an individual and a taxpayer,” her London publicists said in a statement on Friday. She was charged by her publicists of violating her rights by the Spanish Tax Agency.
According to Shakira’s Spanish public relations team, the singer has deposited the money she is supposed to owe, as well as the interest.
According to prosecutors in Barcelona, the Grammy winner should have paid taxes in Spain because he spent more than half of each year there between 2012 and 2014.
Shakira and Gerard Piqué, the FC Barcelona star with whom she has two children, recently broke their 11-year engagement. In Barcelona, the family used to live.