A Spanish court has acquitted Colombian singer Shakira in a tax fraud case pertaining to the year 2011, saying that the authorities failed to prove the singer was a resident of Spain during the time.
The Madrid court also ordered the Treasury to reimburse her $70 million (including accrued interest) in wrongly imposed fines.
According to the court, Spanish authorities were only able to prove Shakira lived in Spain for a total of 163 days in 2011. That was short of the 183 days required to be considered a tax resident.
The tax agency had tied Shakira to Spain due to a relationship with her former partner, former Barcelona soccer player Gerard Piqué, and because her primary economic activities were based in the country.
The High Court ruled that Shakira and Gerard did not have the equivalent of a marital relationship, and added that "the main center or base" of Shakira's activities or economic interests in 2011 was not proven to be directly or indirectly located in Spain.
Shakira said in a statement that the court "finally set the record straight" after she spent eight years "enduring brutal public targeting, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and sleepless nights that ultimately impacted my health and my family's well-being."
"There was never any fraud, and the Tax Agency itself was never able to prove otherwise, simply because it wasn't true. Yet, for nearly a decade, I was treated as guilty. Every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified, using my name and public image to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers. Today, that narrative crumbles, and it does so with the full force of a court ruling," the statement added.
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