Lionel Messi in fresh charity-money laundering investigation [El Pais]

Lionel Messi in fresh charity-money laundering investigation [El Pais]

Having paid of the Spanish Hacienda (Justice System) last year for unpaid taxes, to the tune of approimately 10 million euros, Barcelona and Argentina’s Lionel Messi is now embroile in a fresh money laundering and narco-trafficking investigation, on the eve of the World Cup.

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Spanish paper El Pais report with a wide-ranging article, detailing that the Spanish Police are now investigating Lionel Messi’s supposed charity matches “Messi and Friends vs Rest of the World, from 2012 and 2013.

There is a suspicion that the money generated from the games has been used in a worldwide money laundering operation, involving 8 countries: the US, Panama, the tax haven Curaçao Island, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Spain, and Hong Kong.

There exists the possibility, according to El Pais and the video report below, that the money was laundered as part of an elaborate narco-trafficking operation.

Messi’s father and advisor, Jorge, has ridiculed and dismissed the investigation, telling La Red, ‘These accusations always come out at a certain time just to generate attention, it’s all lies.’