Shakira Is Facing Alleged Tax Fraud in Spain Again

Shakira is under investigation for tax fraud for the second time.

Reuters reports a Spanish court is looking to determine if the singer committed income and wealth tax fraud in 2018.

The 46-year-old is already due in court in November to stand trial for an earlier tax fraud case.

In 2018, the icon was charged with failing to pay 14.5 million euros in taxes to the Spanish government from 2012-2014. It was alleged that she lived in Catalonia, Spain, even though called herself a resident of the Bahamas.

Shakira has denied the allegations, telling Elle in 2022, “I didn’t spend 183 days per year [in Spain] at that time at all. I was busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world. Second, I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So, as of today, I owe zero to them.”

She rejected an earlier plea deal, and Us Weekly reports that if convicted she faces eight years in prison and a 23-million euro fine.

Shakira’s legal woes come amid her split with Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué, the father of her two children.

She told Elle last year, that her life felt like a “bad dream,” explaining, “I try to conceal the situation from [the kids] as much as I can. It’s really upsetting for two kids who are trying to process their parents’ separation. And sometimes I just feel like this is all a bad dream and that I’m going to wake up at some point. But no, it’s real. And what’s also real is the disappointment to see something as sacred and as special as I thought was the relationship I had with my kids’ father and see that turned into something vulgarized and cheapened by the media.”