Jose Mourinho speaking to journalists
Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho has reportedly 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, according to Dailymail UK.
The Portuguese manager 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.
The investigating court in Madrid which has led the criminal probe
into Mourinho – Pozuelo de Alarcon Court Number four – is expected to be
informed about the deal in the coming days.
El Mundo reported the 55-year-old, whose future at United has been
called into question after a disappointing start to the season, had also
agreed to pay a fine totalling £1.78m (€1.98m) representing 60 per cent
of the amount defrauded.
Prosecutors and court officials could not be reached early on Tuesday morning for comment.
First-time offenders in Spain do not normally serve jail sentences
of two years or less – meaning the one-year jail term Mourinho has
reportedly accepted for two counts of tax fraud will almost certainly be
suspended at a later date after the investigating court has been
officially informed of the situation.
Mourinho’s tax affairs were placed under new scrutiny last year.
Prosecutors alleged Mourinho owed the Spanish state almost £2.9m in
undeclared revenue relating to image rights in 2011 and 2012 — when he
was in charge of Real Madrid.
The allegations involved claims false information was given to
Spain’s Tax Agency during a 2015 probe, prompting prosecutors to reopen a
case that had been archived after Mourinho paid a six-figure fine.
Mourinho was summonsed to court following revelations by the
European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) Consortium which includes
Spanish newspaper El Mundo, German newspaper Der Spiegel and the Sunday
Times.
One of the claims was that the Spanish taxman was supplied with
fictitious expenses to make it appear an offshore shell company Mourinho
benefited from was functioning as an active firm.
The United manager played down any suggestion of wrongdoing after a
brief behind-closed-doors hearing at Pozuelo de Alarcon Court of
Investigation No 4 last November.
He insisted he had left Spain four years earlier with the
‘information and conviction his tax situation was perfectly legal’ and
regularised his situation a couple of years later after he was told to
pay more cash following a tax probe.
He told reporters: ‘I answered, I didn’t contest it, I paid and
I signed an official agreement with the state under which everything
was definitively closed.
‘That’s why I’ve been here five minutes today to say to the judge exactly what I’m telling you.’
His claims led to inaccurate reports at the time he had resolved his tax problems.
A court source confirmed after the hearing the criminal
investigation would continue, revealing Mourinho had only answered the
questions of his lawyer during his court quiz and not those of the other
lawyers present including the state prosecutor.