The Madrid region prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday March 6 that it would seek four years and nine months in prison against the Italian coach of Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, who is due to be tried soon in a tax fraud case.
In a long press release, the prosecution accuses him of having defrauded the Spanish public treasury of more than a million euros over the years 2014 and 2015 by failing to declare his income from his image rights. In Spain, the prosecution makes its requests known before the opening of the trial.
This announcement comes a few hours before Real Madrid faces RB Leipzig in their home Santiago Bernabeu in the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League. Madrid won the first leg in Germany 1-0.
After three years of investigation, a court of the regional community of Madrid announced, in the summer of 2023, the referral to criminal justice of Carlo Ancelotti. The prosecution told AFP on Wednesday that the date of the trial was not yet known.
“Complex” network of trusts and intermediary companies”
According to the prosecution and the tax administration, the Italian coach only declared to the tax authorities his income as Real coach for the years 2014 and 2015, but not those from image rights or other sources income, particularly real estate.
“Although he himself declared that he was a tax resident in Spain and indicated that his domicile was in Madrid, he only indicated in his tax declarations the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid”details the press release.
According to the prosecution, this omission was voluntary, Carlo Ancelotti having resorted, according to the press release, to “a “complex” and “confusing” network of trusts and intermediary companies to channel the perception of image rights”. He thus ““simulated” the transfer of its image rights to entities “devoid of real activity”” domiciled outside Spain, for the purpose of maintaining “opacity vis-à-vis the Spanish public treasury”adds the press release.
Mr. Ancelotti had coached Real between 2013 and 2015, before returning to the Madrid bench in 2021. According to persistent rumors, he was then to become the coach of Brazil at the end of his contract, in June 2024, but finally extended his lease with the Madrid club until June 2026.