A shock story involving Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho emerged on Friday evening relating to accusations of hiding millions in tax havens,
According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel - and brought to our attention by the Mirror - Ronaldo could have “hidden 150 million euros in tax havens in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands”.
Twelve European newspapers have obtained leaked documents - following an investigation into widespread alleged corruption under the collective name “Football Leaks” - which suggest Ronaldo and Mourinho could be involved in a multimillion-Euro “tax evasion and money laundering” scheme.
Football Leaks, you might remember, are the whistleblowing organisation who released the details of various high-profile footballers’ contracts earlier this year.
The contract details of Neymar, Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay were all posted online. The details of Angel Di Maria’s transfer from Real Madrid to Manchester United and Luis Suarez’s agreement with Barcelona were also leaked.It was also revealed back in February that Ronaldo earned an eye-watering £860,000 for signing five Portugal shirts, two social media posts and a photo shoot - which had a maximum time limit of four-and-a-half hours.
JORGE MENDES'S COMPANY RELEASE STATEMENT
However, these latest accusations are far more serious and could have severe repercussions if they are proven to be true.
The newspapers have claimed that Ronaldo and Mourinho may have benefited from a tax system orchestrated by their agent, Jorge Mendes, whose company have dismissed the allegations as false.
The company in question is called Gestifute and the following statement has been released…
"In March 2016, a number of different companies connected to the world of sports were victims of a cyberattack in several European countries, including Spain. As a result of this, some of the companies complained to the Spanish Court of Justice. The Spanish Court has made an order prohibiting the publication of information obtained as a result of the cyberattack since it constituted a criminal offense. This investigation is subject to secrecy, so no further information about the investigation can be revealed.
After more than eight months since the attack, in the past weeks Gestifute, its clients, advisors and other entities related to Gestifute have received detailed enquiries from various media organizations which are all members of a pan-European consortium.
The tone used in the various questionnaires that were received is insidious, disrespectful, threatening and a far cry from the most basic standards of journalism’s best practices.
Particularly, a newspaper, which was initially not part of the consortium and which, according to the prohibitions ordered by the Spanish Court, claims to work alongside with it, has become a necessary cooperator of the referred consortium in order to try to attack the interests of Gestifute and those of its clients, thus trying to avoid its alleged legal responsibilities in the dissemination of manipulated, distorted, biased and stolen information.
One newspaper makes the unfounded allegation that Gestifute, its clients and its advisers of having, directly or indirectly, created, organized or designed tax structures to facilitate tax evasion using tax havens. The most serious and malicious allegations in the enquiries relate to José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Furthermore, today news have come out insinuating a reprehensible conduct by Cristiano Ronaldo and questioning his good name.
In this regard, Gestifute publicly states that:
- Both Cristiano Ronaldo and José Mourinho are fully compliant with their tax obligations with the Spanish and British tax authorities.
- Neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor José Mourinho have ever been involved in legal proceedings regarding the commission of a tax offense.
- Any insinuation or accusation made to Cristiano Ronaldo or José Mourinho over the commission of a tax offense will be reported to the legal authorities and prosecuted.
In addition, Gestifute publicly states that:
- We always act with the highest level of professionalism in our relationships with our clients and the authorities in all those countries in which we operate.
- Our goal as a company is to provide the best advice to our clients, always within the framework of the applicable law at the time in each country we operate.
- European tax authorities have different criteria in terms of image rights and foreign clients are often affected by these differences, which they respect and abide by. In any cases in which there have been disagreements with the respective authorities on the tax criteria to be applied, these have always been resolved by agreement with the authorities without legal proceedings ever being necessary.
- We will not hesitate to take legal action to defend ourselves and our clients over any untrue and unlawful allegations published about us."
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