A series of charity matches involving Barcelona soccer star Lionel Messi that took place in six countries – including the US, Mexico and Peru, in 2012 and 2013 – is under the judicial spotlight. The Civil Guard’s UCO organized crime unit is investigating five bank transfers of almost €1 million from the organizers of at least two of the events that ended up in a company based in the tax haven of Curaçao in the Dutch Caribbean.
The official receipts for the transfers contain handwritten notes suggesting the payees of the money were “G. Marín-Messi.” Guillermo Marín is the family friend and head of Argentinean company Imagen Deportiva whom Messi entrusted with managing his series of Los Amigos de Messi contra el resto del mundo (or, Messi’s friends versus the rest of the world) charity games.
A Madrid court has opened money-laundering and tax-fraud proceedings into the matches. The investigation, which is unrelated to the complaint recently filed by the Spanish Tax Agency against the Argentinean player for concealing income from his image rights, revolves around an alleged Colombian plot that, in cahoots with Spanish citizens, might have used the charity games to launder drug money. Early inquiries suggest that even though the matches were publicized as charity events, the players who participated in them received payment for their services, and some of these payments were sent to Curaçao.
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