Cristiano Ronaldo Testifies In Court

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Cristiano Ronaldo went through the difficult drink on Monday to answer tough questions before an investigating judge in relation to the accusations of tax fraud that the Spanish authorities have filed against the Real Madrid forward.

While his team continues to tour the United States, the Portuguese star went with his lawyer early in the morning to the investigative court number 1 of Pozuelo de Alarcón, on the outskirts of the Spanish capital, where judge Mónica Gómez Ferrer, the prosecution and lawyers of the Spanish tax agency.

In the interrogation, which lasted an hour and a half, there were moments of tension in the exchange with the Portuguese star, who repeatedly denied that he had committed any irregularity, according to judicial sources told different Spanish media.

"I trusted my advisers," said the 32-year-old forward, according to the newspaper El Mundo, an identical response to the explanation that Lionel Messi provided at the time when he was also charged and later convicted of tax evasion.

Cristiano was -always according to the same sources- disgusted with the process opened against him for the alleged concealment of image rights revenues, through companies in tax havens, which would have saved him more than the press press in which he reiterated his innocence.

He assured that the network of companies that he is accused of mounting for evading purposes comes from his time at Manchester United and had had the approval of the British tax authorities.

"I always do my tax returns voluntarily, because he thinks that we all have to declare and pay taxes according to our income," he says in the text. "Those who know me know what I ask advisers: that they have everything up to date and correctly paid, because I don't want problems."

The problems with the Spanish treasury of the forward came to light last December with the leaking to the media through Football Leaks of documents that showed the network of companies that he had to supposedly reduce his obligations to the Spanish Treasury.

Months later, the tax authorities and the prosecution filed the charges against Cristiano, who is now being reviewed by the judge, who in the coming weeks is expected to call to declare the player's advisers as his agent, the almighty Jorge Mendes.

The accusations so bothered the Madeira-born star that last June, information leaked that he would be weighing the idea of leaving Real Madrid and returning to an English league team.