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Shakira has publicly accused the Spanish Treasury of treating her like a witch during the Inquisition. The Colombian singer has been at the center of a high-profile tax fraud case, which saw her confess to multiple charges in exchange for a suspended prison sentence and a substantial fine.
The controversy began when Spanish prosecutors alleged that Shakira had failed to pay €14.5 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014. At the time, Shakira was living in Barcelona with her then-partner, football star Gerard Piqué. Initially, she denied any wrongdoing. However, in November last year, she confessed to six counts of tax fraud in a Barcelona court, agreeing to a suspended three-year prison sentence and a £6.4 million fine.
In her most recent and fiercest attack, Shakira accused the Spanish Treasury of "publicly burning her at the stake" like a witch during the Inquisition. She claimed that the Spanish judiciary system had conducted a "smear campaign" against her, aiming to intimidate and humiliate her. "They wanted to make the public believe that I did not pay my taxes, when the truth is that I paid much more than I should have," she stated.
Shakira's accusations did not stop there. She alleged that the Spanish Tax Agency had engaged in a sexist campaign of intimidation, displaying her as a "hunting trophy." She expressed her frustration, saying, "More than trying to punish those who do not comply, the Spanish Tax Agency wants to show off hunting trophies to rebuild a credibility in question. And how is that achieved? By frightening people, threatening them with jail time, compromising the peace of mind of our children and putting us under pressure to break us."
The singer also highlighted the financial toll her time in Spain had taken on her. "It may seem incomprehensible, but for me the Spanish decade was a financially lost decade, and not because I worked little as everyone knows. I gave 120 concerts in 90 different cities. How can a person who gives 120 concerts lose money? It sounds strange, I know, but today my assets consist of what I earned before arriving in Spain and what I earned after leaving it. Everything I earned in those years went to the Spanish State."
Shakira's decision to speak out now, she explained, was driven by a desire to protect her children and set the record straight. "Things are not solved by burning a public figure every year at the stake," she asserted. The Spanish Treasury has yet to respond to Shakira's latest accusations.
