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Kaieteur News
Wednesday April 06, 2016
Soccer superstar Messi caught up in “Panama Papers” leak (CBS/AP) MADRIDSpanish tax authorities say they are investigating allegations of tax irregularities involving soccer player Lionel Messi in documents released by an international probe of offshore accounts. The Barcelona star was among those named in reports by international media who received a vast trove of data and documents leaked from a law firm based in Panama. Still in the initial discovery stages as journalists pour through the 11.5 million files, the “Panama Papers” leak has implicated world leaders, businesses and celebrities in the practice of using shell companies to launder and hide money, avoid taxes, and other dealings. Messi’s family released a statement Monday denying wrongdoing and threatened to sue media outlets that released the information linking the Argentine player to accounts in Panama. Last year, Spanish authorities charged Messi and his father with three counts of tax fraud for allegedly defrauding Spain’s tax office of 4.1 million euros ($4.4 million) in
unpaid taxes from 2007-09. They go on trial in late May and face nearly two years in prison if found guilty. Prosecutors had said Messi — a four-time world player of the year — was not fully aware of his father’s unlawful activities and should not have been charged, but the state attorney’s office contended that the Argentina forward knew enough to also be named in the case. Messi is not alone in the soccer world to be caught up in the data leak. A FIFA judge who helped ban Sepp Blatter for financial misconduct is now under investigation by his ethics committee colleagues after being named in an international probe of offshore accounts. The FIFA ethics prosecution chamber said Monday that it “opened a preliminary investigation to review the allegations” linked to lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani of Uruguay. Damiani was identified in a vast trove of data and documents leaked from a law firm in Panama, Mossack Fonseca, which specializes in creating off-
Argentina’s Lionel Messi
shore accounts that can be used to avoid tax. He heads his family’s legal and accountancy practice in Montevideo founded by his late father, Jose Pedro Damiani. The FIFA case against Damiani was opened in March after ethics judges learned of his “business relationship” with former FIFA
vice president Eugenio Figueredo, a fellow Uruguayan arrested in Zurich. In addition to Damiani, suspended UEFA president
Michel Platini said all his accounts and assets are known by tax authorities after he was named in leaked documents about offshore accounts from
the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. According to the Le Monde newspaper, Platini has been managing an offshore company funded in Panama in 2007 and named Balney Enterprises Corp. Platini’s advisers said in a statement Monday that the former France international soccer star “wants to inform that, as he stated it many times to the journalists in charge of the investigation, all of his accounts and assets are known to the tax authorities in Switzerland, where he has been a fiscal resident since 2007.” Platini’s advisers declined to confirm whether he actually managed the company. Platini was suspended from office in October by FIFA’s ethics committee and is now serving a six-year ban over a $2 million payment that former FIFA president Sepp Blatter approved from FIFA funds in 2011.
Viv Richards: Best phase in West Indies Cricket After Our Era WICRICNEWS.com How can any West Indies cricket achievement beat the period of dominance in which the Clive Lloyd-led teams won two World Cups (in 1975 and 1979) and were beaten in a Test series only once after 1975-76 (by New Zealand in 1979-80) till the time Lloyd quit the game in 1985? According to Sir Vivian Richards, the chief batting architect in that glorious period, Sunday’s ICC World T20 victories by the women’s and men’s teams come close. “This is the greatest period ever since that wonderful phase involving Clive’s team. Considering the success that West Indies team had on a consistent basis, this is the closest any West Indies team would have got in terms of pride among all nations that make up West Indies cricket,” Richards told mid-day from Antigua yesterday. ‘WI had belief’ Richards, who took over the captaincy mantle from Lloyd in 1985 and led the team till his 1991 retirement, didn’t lose a Test series. He reckoned self belief played an important part in West Indies’ Sunday glory and the quality was aptly epitomised by Carlos Brathwaite, who hit four sixes in the last over to deny England their second World T20 triumph. Richards didn’t appear surprised by Brathwaite’s stunning show. “Carlos is a determined guy. I worked with him in the West Indies ‘A’
Sir Vivian Richards team (Richards was Technical Director in the Brathwaite-led team in Sri Lanka). He is strong, big and took it away from England. If someone has that kind of belief, anything can be achieved. “Belief is the greatest thing to have as a competitor. You may have talent and ability but the most important thing to have is belief and of course, enough ammunition and personnel to chase down anything that the opposition sets,” said Richards, who kept abreast of West Indies’ progress while playing golf. Supreme confidence He had expressed supreme confidence in the West Indies team before their semifinal clash against India. “I think it’s the best opportunity
(to win) regardless of the fact that they are playing India at home. “These guys have got to believe that all things can be accomplished. I believe West Indies have a great chance,” Richards told this newspaper before the March 31 game. Is this best time for the administrators to sort out their differences with the players? Richards is hopeful, but didn’t sound optimistic: “Judging from what Darren Sammy said in his post-match comments, it didn’t sound all that good. “I am just hoping that the folks who didn’t play a huge role on the administrative side of things, are not going to jump and start acclaiming that they have done this and that.” (sports.ndtv.com/)