Jorge Messi has declared his and his son’s innocence in light of a charge of tax fraud and hit out at the media’s coverage of the affair.
Last week saw the Barcelona footballer and his father named as the subject of a complaint filed in court for three counts of criminal and civil responsibility for tax fraud from 2006 to 2009 worth more than €4m.
The player expressed his surprise, but will now have to appear as a defendant in September along with his father as the judge handling the complaint ruled there was a case to answer.
“I can assure you that Leo paid annually a figure of two numbers with six zeros behind it,” Messi Snr told Cadena Cope in response to the latest development.
“It bothers us that certain media have run a campaign of slander and generated expressions of hate. It is very cruel, but we know what do do when this is cleared up.
“We are very well and very clam because we have never failed to pay anything to the Hacienda.
“There is a difference of opinion between them and our tax advisors, which is normal because this is always the case with those who pay large amounts to the state.”
