Cristiano Ronaldo charged with $16million Tax fruad

Cristiano Ronaldo, the most famous athlete in the world has been hit with criminal charges in Spain for allegedly scheming to screw the government out of millions of dollars.

Officials in Spain have filed a complaint against the Real Madrid star accusing him of stiffing the Spanish tax man out of more than $16 million between 2011 and 2014.

In fact, officials say Ronaldo set up shell companies (based in the Virgin Islands) as a “screen” to keep the money from Spain’s Tax Office.

If convicted on all charges, Ronaldo could get a 5 year prison term — though it’s unlikely he’ll serve a single minute behind bars as a first time non-violent offender.

Basically, for a guy reportedly made close to $100 mil last year — it all seems like a little inconvenience.

Ronaldo, who is from Portugal, became a Spanish tax resident in January 2010 and in November 2011 opted to follow the Spanish tax regime that applies to foreigners working in Spain, the statement said.

He should have paid a tax rate of 24 percent in 2011, and 24.75 percent in the three following years, it said.

Spanish prosecutor said that after Ronaldo signed a contract to join Real Madrid in December 2008 he ceded his image rights to a company called Tollin Associates Ltd, domiciled in the British Virgin Islands and in which he was the only stakeholder.

Tollin Associates then ceded his image rights to a company in Ireland called Multisports&Image Management Ltd which was responsible for managing them. Tollin Associates itself had no business activity, the statement said.

“Ceding image rights to (Tollin Associates) was completely unnecessary and it’s only purpose was to create a screen to conceal the totality of his image rights income from the Spanish tax authorities,” the statement said.

The prosecutor’s office filed the lawsuit against Ronaldo on Tuesday to a court in the Madrid district of Pozuelo de Alarcon.

Ronaldo finished the soccer season scoring two goals in a 4-1 victory over Juventus in the Champions League final to become the tournament’s top scorer with a total of 12 goals.

Afterwards, Spanish sports newspaper Marca called Real Madrid, who also won La Liga this year, “masters of the universe”.

In May, Spain’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Messi and stood by a Catalan regional court’s 21-month prison sentence for defrauding authorities of 4.1 million euros on image rights. He is unlikely to go to prison as under Spanish law sentences under two years can be served under probation.

Spain’s High Court in May cleared Neymar of fraud but he still faces a corruption trial in Spain in connection with the value of his 2013 transfer from Santos to Barcelona. He has denied wrongdoing.