Soccer superstar Lionel Messi and his father have each been handed 21-month jail sentences for tax fraud by a Spanish court, but they’re unlikely to spend any time behind bars.
Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, were both found guilty of defrauding Spain of €4.1 million ($4.5 million) between 2007 and ’09, BBC News reports. In addition to prison sentences for each, they have been fined millions of euros.
But because Spanish regulations allow prison terms of less than two years to be suspended, neither man is likely to serve time, the Associated Press reports.
Messi has said he “knew nothing” about how his finances were being handled, and that he signed documents his father and advisors gave him without reading them. His father has also denied willful wrongdoing, ESPN reports.
- Succession Was a Race to the Bottom, And Everybody Won
- What Erdoğan’s Victory Means for Turkey—and the World
- Why You Can't Remember That Taylor Swift Concert All Too Well
- How Four Trans Teens Threw the Prom of Their Dreams
- Why Turkey’s Longtime Leader Is an Electoral Powerhouse
- The Ancient Roots of Psychotherapy
- Drought Crisis Spurs U.S.-Mexico Collaboration
- Florence Pugh Might Just Save the Movie Star From Extinction
