Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is said to have accepted a one-year prison sentence as part of a plea bargain deal with prosecutors accusing him of a £2.9million (€3.3m) tax fraud.
He was accused of owing nearly €3.3m in undeclared image rights revenue for 2011 and 2012 when he was Real Madrid manager.
It was gathered that the former Real Madrid coach has accepted a six-month jail sentence for each of the two financial crimes he was accused of after accepting wrongdoing as part of the agreement with prosecutors, respected Spanish newspaper El Mundo said on Tuesday.
Jose Mourinho 'gets suspended jail sentence' for tax fraud https://t.co/If8MdU8Spj
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 4, 2018
The good news is that he is not expected to serve any time in jail because Spanish law states that a sentence of under two years for a first offence can be served on probation.
Spanish prosecutors filed a claim against Mourinho June last year on two counts of tax fraud.
He has also agreed to a fine equivalent to 60 per cent of the amount defrauded, or €1.98 million (£1.78 million), although payments he has already made means he will only have to hand over €669,323 (£603,000) to the Spanish treasury, according to the report.
The charges relate to income for image rights in 2011 and 2012 that were said to have been hidden from tax authorities by being funnelled through a British Virgin Islands company, Koper Services, and Irish and Swiss companies, before ending up in the New Zealand-based Kaitaia Trust which had Mourinho’s wife and children as named beneficiaries.
Spain has cracked down on tax evasion, with United winger Alexis Sanchez accepting a 16-month prison term. Cristiano Ronaldo, who played under Mourinho at Real, got a suspended two-year term and was fined nearly £17 million.
