Shakira admits tax fraud in Spain and agrees to a multi-million-dollar fine to avoid prison

The Colombian singer, Shakira, agreed this Monday to the payment of a multi-million dollar fine in exchange for a reduced sentence to avoid going to prison after admitting before the Spanish justice system that she defrauded the Treasury of 14.5 million between 2012 and 2014.

The artist's lawyers agreed to a plea bargain with the prosecution at the last minute before the trial in which she was facing an eight-year and two-month prison sentence and a fine of 23.8 million of euros (about 26 million dollars) for having allegedly defrauded the Spanish treasury of 14.5 million.

Following this agreement, in which the 46-year-old singer acknowledges that she did not pay taxes in Spain between 2012 and 2014, despite the fact that she was obliged to spend more than half of the year in the country, the penalty request will be reduced and Shakira will avoid entering prison. This is an agreement that the Spanish Prosecutor's Office and the singer's defense had explored months ago but that did not prosper until a few minutes before the trial began. The agreement was ratified by the artist's defense, the Spanish State Bar and the Catalan Bar, the Spanish autonomous community in which the singer had her tax residence.

Shakira will have to pay just over 7 million euros in addition to another fine of 432,000 euros to commute the three-year prison sentence to which she has been sentenced (six months for each tax offense).