Shakira to pay fine of over 7.3 million euros ($7.98 million) to avoid trial for tax fraud

Colombian superstar Shakira will pay a fine of over 7.3 million euros ($7.98 million) as part of a deal with Spanish prosecutors to avoid trial for tax fraud, a Barcelona court said Monday.Under the deal, announced at the start of what would have been the trial of the 46-year-old singer, Shakira also agreed to receive a three-year suspended sentence.Shakira turned down a deal offered to her by prosecutors to settle her case in July 2022, saying, via her Spanish public relations firm Llorente y Cuenca, that she “believes in her innocence and chooses to leave the issue in the hands of the law.” The details of that potential deal were not made public.A three-judge panel, led by magistrate José Manuel del Amo, will preside over the trial. Shakira is supposed to be inside the courtroom by 10:00 a.m.Shakira’s statement In an interview last year, she said, “ These are false accusations. First of all, I didn’t spend 183 days per year at that time at all. I was busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world. Second, I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So, as of today I owe zero to them.”She added, “The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It’s clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what. They knew I wasn’t in Spain the required time, that Spain wasn’t my place of work or my source of income, but they still came after me, with their eyes on the prize.”The trial is initially scheduled to conclude on Dec. 14.With added inputs from agencies