Heavy/NBC Breaking news about former "The Voice" coach Shakira
Prosecutors in Spain have charged global pop superstar Shakira, a coach on “The Voice” during its fourth and sixth seasons, in a second case of tax evasion, alleging she failed to pay 6.7 million euros — the equivalent of $7.1 million in the U.S. — in taxes on her 2018 income, according to the Associated Press.
In a statement on September 26, 2023, Barcelona prosecutors alleged Shakira used an offshore company based in a tax haven to avoid paying the tax, per USA Today.
Authorities said Shakira had been notified of the charges at her home in Miami, AP reported, where she recently moved following a highly-publicized breakup, in hopes of turning a new leaf. She is already facing a separate set of tax evasion charges in Barcelona, where she’s due to stand trial beginning November 20.
Shakira Now Faces Multiple Charges of Tax Evasion in Spain
GettyShakira performs during the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2023.
Columbian-born Shakira, 46, spent much of her time in Barcelona during the decade she was in a relationship with now-retired soccer player Gerard Pique, before the two confirmed their separation to Reuters in the summer of 2022.
But just how much time she spent in Spain is at the heart of the charges against her. According to the AP, prosecutors first charged the Grammy winner in December 2019, alleging she hadn’t paid $16.4 million worth of taxes in Spain between 2012 and 2014. They claim she primarily lived there — meaning that she lived there more than half of the time — despite having her official residence in Panama, AP reported.
In July 2022, according to Reuters, Shakira refused to make a deal with prosecutors, insisting on her innocence, which is what has led to her going to trial in November to plead her case. Despite her claimed innocence, she paid off the alleged debt last year, Reuters said. If found guilty in the first case, she could still face up to eight years in prison.
A trial date for this latest set of charges has not been set, AP reported. USA Today said the public relations firm that has provided statements for Shakira in the past, Llorente y Cuenca, has not commented about the latest charges.
Shakira Moved to Miami With Her Boys to Start a ‘New Chapter’
Shakira recently moved with her kids to Miami, hoping for a fresh start. She and Pique have two sons — Milan, 10, and Sasha, 8 — and reached a custody agreement in November 2022 that allowed for Shakira to move to the U.S with their kids in April 2023.
In an Instagram post on April 2, Shakira explained in Spanish, “I settled in Barcelona to give my children stability, the same that we are now looking for in another corner of the world next to family, friends and the sea.”
“Today we begin a new chapter in the search for your happiness,” she continued. “Thanks to everyone who surfed so many waves with me there in Barcelona, the city where I learned that friendship is undoubtedly longer than love.”
Amid highly publicized allegations of infidelity on Pique’s part, Shakira, whom Billboard called “one of the most recognizable and celebrated stars on the planet” in a September 21 profile, channeled her pain into her music, scoring six chart-topping hits about her breakup, including a massive hit with “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” created with Argentine DJ Bizarrap.
In the tune, Billboard said Shakira has coined a “global feminist mantra” with a post-breakup chant of “Women don’t cry; we make money.”
Shakira told Billboard that through her recent challenges, she has toughened up and is less of a “drama queen.”
“Before, when I didn’t have real problems, I was a true drama queen,” she said. “I remember one time, Gerard bought me a diamond ring because I chipped a tooth on ‘The Voice’ and I was crying so much. I was inconsolable. I was also pregnant, so I was highly hormonal.”
“Now I chip a tooth, and it doesn’t go beyond being a little inconvenience that you fix with a visit to the dentist. I wouldn’t cry over it for two days in a row like I used to back in the day when I used to be happy.”