Prosecutors in Spain are seeking a prison sentence of eight years against pop star. Photo / Getty Images
Prosecutors in Spain are seeking a prison sentence of eight years against pop star. Photo / Getty Images
Shakira is facing up to eight years in jail if found guilty of an alleged €14.5 million ($23.6m) tax fraud.
The Hips Don't Lie singer, 45, is accused of defrauding the Spanish treasury out of a fortune over a three-year period from 2012 to 2014.
Prosecutors want the maximum sentenceover six separate counts of tax fraud.
The charges were contained in an indictment submitted by prosecutors to the investigating court near Barcelona and made public for the first time on Friday, July 29.
A representative for Shakira said in a statement: "Shakira has always co-operated and abided by the law, demonstrating impeccable conduct as an individual and a taxpayer, and faithfully following the counsel of PriceWaterhouse Coopers, a prestigious and globally recognised tax firm.
"Unfortunately, the Spanish Tax Office, which loses one out of every two lawsuits with its taxpayers, continues to violate her rights and pursue yet another baseless case.
"Shakira is confident that her innocence will be proven by the end of the judicial process."
As well as an eight-year prison sentence, state prosecutors want the mum-of-two to be fined €23.8m ($38.8m).
Shakira – born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll – is accused of pretending to live abroad to avoid paying tax despite moving to Barcelona in 2011 to be with her ex, 35-year-old Spanish footballer Gerard Pique, with whom she has two children.
Shakira, Gerard Pique and their two sons. Photo / Getty Images
She has already paid an estimated €2.5m ($4m) to the Spanish taxman.
Shakira, previously living in the Bahamas, registered as a full tax resident in Spain in 2015.
Official residents in Spain pay Spanish taxes on their worldwide income and people who spent more than 183 days in a calendar year there are considered Spanish residents for tax purposes.
Tax inspectors spent more than a year checking up on the singer and even visited her favourite hairdressers in Barcelona and trawled her social media to try to show she spent most of the three years in dispute in Spain.
They concluded she had spent 242 days in Spain in 2012, 212 days in 2013 and 243 days in the country in 2014.
The report prosecutors submitted alleged the time she spent out of Spain were "sporadic absences" linked to work.
