Tax patriot Karim Benzema
Because Karim Benzema pays his taxes in France instead of in tax havens, he is now called "tax patriot."
A court also tried to stop the publication of the research in Spain and other countries.
Karim Benzema’s eyes lit up as he came out of the locker room; All the anger that was felt right up to the roof of the Bernabéu Stadium when he scored the first of his two goals against Borussia Dortmund in a 2-2 draw had vanished. He rushed into the goal to get the ball out of the net and threw it towards the evening sky.
28 minutes had been played, and what burst out of Benzema was resentment over a constant that he has had to endure since his move to Real Madrid in 2009: the constant criticism of his alleged phlegm. Recently he was castigated again in the media. But then he not only delivered “a good game personally,” as he said, but also wrote his name into the list of the ten best Champions League scorers in history. With now 50 premier class goals, more than Alfredo Di Stéfano blessed. Many strikers in Europe would like to have a phlegm like Benzema.
In the Real Madrid dressing room, of course, they envy him something else. Some footballers there are upset because they appear in the “Football Leaks” documents published by Spiegel and other European media and are now accused of funneling money past the Spanish tax authorities. Benzema’s name is now also mentioned; he collected advertising revenue beyond Spanish borders, although not in a tax haven, but in France, where he paid around 33 percent taxes on the total revenue. More than in Spain. Whether Spain’s tax authorities like this is still the question, after all, Benzema lives in Madrid and they would certainly like a piece of his cake there. But he liked the “tax patriot” label slapped on Benzema; he smiled when the term was thrown at him in the mixed zone: “I’m very calm,” said Benzema. Striker partner Cristiano Ronaldo also appeared calm as he marched home without a word with the child in his arms. But the circles that Football Leaks draws are likely to worry him.
It became known that the public prosecutor’s office in Madrid had filed charges against five professionals for alleged tax offenses – among them Bayern professional Xabi Alonso, whose conflict with the tax authorities has been known for a long time and is out of the ordinary in that he, in contrast to Radamel Falcao ( AS Monaco, formerly Atlético Madrid), Ricardo Carvalho, Ángel Di María and Fábio Coentrão were never among Ronaldo’s manager Jorge Mendes’ clients. The news is unpleasant for Ronaldo because Falcao, Carvalho, Di María and Coentrão channeled their income from image rights through similar or identical company structures in tax havens as Ronaldo. He claims that he only acted within the legal framework. He is said to have funneled income from advertising contracts – around 150 million euros over twelve years – through companies in Ireland and the British Virgin Islands.
How great the pressure is becoming can also be seen from the fact that Spain’s Finance Ministry has announced that the investigation into Ronaldo’s behavior, which was launched in 2015, is being carried out “in silence”. Of course, that doesn’t prevent the chorus from swelling in Barcelona who are surprised that the public prosecutor’s office has so far only targeted former Real Madrid stars. The fact that Barça stars like Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano were relentlessly pursued also caused a stir; at least compared to Mendes clients. The coach José Mourinho hid far higher amounts from the tax authorities than the Barça stars. Messi and Mascherano were sentenced to prison in public trials; Mourinho got away with a discreetly negotiated tax fine. Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro confirmed that findings from the Football Leaks complex had been incorporated into the investigation.
The newspaper “El Mundo” ignores the publication ban
This is also notable because Spain’s justice system is simultaneously trying to stop the publication of the Football Leaks. Judge Arturo Zamarriego banned the newspaper El Mundo from publishing the relevant documents in Spain days ago; he assumes that the “confidential” documents were obtained illegally through a hacker attack on the servers of a tax office in Madrid. He did not provide any evidence of this; the relevant procedure itself is still subject to investigative secrecy.
The affected media and the anonymous operators of Football Leaks have always emphasized that the documents were obtained legally. The judge nevertheless threatened the editor-in-chief of El Mundo with five years in prison. El Mundo ignored the publication ban without the judge carrying out the threat. Instead, he tried to use requests for legal assistance to obtain a publication ban in other countries – for example in Germany, the home of Spiegel magazine. Spanish journalists’ associations spoke of acts of censorship and an ignoble attack on press freedom.
Spain’s government spokesman Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, who is also the sports minister, was “surprised” and said that he “has the feeling that it won’t lead to anything, and things that don’t lead to anything should be left alone.” Is anyone embarrassed about that?
