Tax fraud: Wissam Ben Yedder sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence and heavy fine

Wissam Ben Yedder condamné par la justice espagnole. EPA – Sebastien Nogier

French international striker and current Monaco captain Wissam Ben Yedder has been sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 133,798.70 euros for tax fraud in Spain, a court in Seville, where the player played between 2016 and 2019, announced on Tuesday, April 11.

The sentence was obtained by agreement of all parties, and the French international will not be imprisoned if he does not commit an offence in the next two years.

The Spanish justice system considers that the player “did not present himself on time” his tax return in 2017, after his first year in Spain.

The Seville court states that the Spanish tax authorities contacted the player again on January 4, 2019, but that Ben Yedder did not respond to this request until two months later, on March 5, 2019, when he paid 225,323.25 euros to the Spanish tax authorities.

Revenis omis

But according to this regional court of Seville, the striker “consciously falsified his declaration by not including the interest received” on three bank accounts held by him, in the amount of 1,623.34 euros.

The former Sevilla FC player also failed to add the income received through the sponsorship contract signed by a company in his name with the Adidas brand, income which amounted to 79,429 euros for the year 2017.

A company “set up by the player for the sole purpose of hiding this income, and not having to pay taxes on it”, the Spanish judges ruled.

Thus, according to this court, “With the income omitted from the tax return, the amount to be paid to the Spanish tax authorities should have been 267,597.40 euros”, or 42,274 euros less than the amount that the striker should have paid.

Despite the fact that the Tricolore paid 51,007.41 euros some time later, the courts decided to condemn him for the late payment.