In Madrid, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has taken up a case once more, centering on allegations of possible fraud against the Treasury spanning 2010 to 2014. The matter concerns the former football star Xabi Alonso, who has previously faced related scrutiny in 2010, 2012, and later years. Recently, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that acquitted him in similar matters, noting that there were no new elements to reopen the investigation.
In a January 19 document accessible to EFE, the Economic Crimes Prosecutor of the Madrid Public Prosecutor’s Office discusses the provisional dismissal and archiving of the proceedings undertaken in Instruction Court No. 52 of Madrid. The document reflects the Prosecutor’s adherence to the Organic Statute governing their work, which in turn is guided by constitutional principles such as legality, objectivity, and impartiality as enshrined in Article 124 of the Constitution.
The filing indicates that the case is being closed on time because there are no fresh elements that would warrant reactivating the discussion of alleged fraud and simulation connected to a contract dated August 1, 2009. That contract, it is claimed, led to subsequent settlements with the Tax Authority and formed the basis for complaints against the former football player and the current coach, who was associated with Bayer Leverkusen at the time.
The document also references the Supreme Court’s October 24 decision, which confirmed Alonso’s acquittal in the trial. He faced accusations of defrauding the Treasury of roughly two million euros during 2010 to 2012. The Supreme Court rejected the objection raised by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against the Madrid High Court of Justice’s ruling, which upheld the acquittal previously handed down by the Regional Court.
Central to the ongoing procedure is a contract signed by Xabi Alonso on August 1, 2009, which involved the transfer of image rights to a company based in Kircaali, linked to Madeira, Portugal. Lawyers for the involved parties and the Prosecutor’s Office have described this arrangement as a simulated legal transaction intended as a strategy to defraud the Spanish public treasury, with the aim of manipulating the taxation of income tied to the footballer’s image rights.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court drew a clear distinction between this case and other cases involving professional football players convicted by the Barcelona Court. In several of those rulings, the high court sustained convictions, explaining that those cases were not comparable to Alonso’s. As a result, Alonso was acquitted in this matter as well.
The Prosecutor’s Office notes that in June 2019 it brought a complaint against Alonso, Iván Zaldúa, and Ignasi Maestre for a potential offense against the Public Treasury related to the 2013 personal income tax, amounting to 572,000 euros. The complaint expanded to cover similar acts committed in 2014, signaling an ongoing assertion of a broader fraud involving approximately 840,000 euros.
According to the Economic Crimes Prosecutor, the office supported the claim that a fraudulent operation was conceived in 2009 and employed between 2010 and 2012, with continued implications into 2013 and 2014. This process was temporarily canceled in 2021 pending a Supreme Court determination of penalties in the initial case. As the Supreme Court has since affirmed the acquittals handed down by the Madrid Regional Court and the Madrid High Court of Justice, the Prosecutor’s Office has requested termination of the file regarding the related proceedings, aligning with the court’s past rulings, indicated by the Supreme Court in its decision.