The international pop star Shakira reached a deal with Spanish prosecutors to settle a multimillion-euro tax evasion case on Monday, just before the trial was set to begin in Barcelona.
Prosecutors had accused Shakira of six counts of tax fraud, charging that she had failed to pay 14.5 million euros, about $15.8 million, in income taxes. The Associated Press reported on Monday that, in court, she told the presiding magistrate that she had accepted an agreement with prosecutors. The A.P. reported that, under the deal, she would receive a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of €7 million.
Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, was accused of failing to pay income taxes to the Spanish government from 2012 to 2014. Shakira had repeatedly denied the accusations and said that she was not living in Spain during those years.
In a July indictment, prosecutors said that Shakira had spent more than half of each year in Spain from 2012-14 and had used a previously established “corporate framework” to hide income and assets during those years.
Prosecutors had sought an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of more than €23 million.
In a statement on Monday, Shakira said that she had always tried to “do what’s right and set a positive example for others.”
“While I was determined to defend my innocence in a trial that my lawyers were confident would have ruled in my favor, I have made the decision to finally resolve this matter with the best interest of my kids at heart,” she said.
