Lionel Messi will not have his tax fraud charges dropped, and the top goal scorer on the planet is looking at five-years imprisonment for tax evasion.
The Barcelona Provincial High Court in Spain rejected an appeal filed by the lawyers of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi to drop tax fraud charges against him, reports El País.
The court said they believed there is evidence to support claims that Messi knowingly benefited from the creation of companies by his father in several countries which allowed him to skip out on payments of €4.1 million($5.5 million) to the Spanish Tax Agency.
The court ruled that they will decide during a hearing whether Messi had knowledge of the fraud scheme and it means that he and his father will remain under investigation for three counts of tax fraud.
Messi’s father Jorge, is at the root of the accusation that he and son withheld more than $5 million from authorities between 2007 and 2009.
Messi’s father did pay $6.6 million to cover unpaid taxes plus interest last August, but the chargers were not dropped.
His lawyers have attempted to have Messi removed from the case.