Mourinho settles ongoing tax fraud with huge fine

New Delhi, May 10: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has agreed to pay a fine of £703,000 and settle his ongoing tax evasion case in the Spanish Court.

According to media reports, Mourinho pleaded guilty of the image rights he was sued on, in his time at Real Madrid, and agreed for an out-of-court settlement with Spanish prosecutors over an alleged £2.9million tax fraud.

The Portuguese manager is said to have admitted to two charges of tax fraud and agreed to pay a £703,000 fine.

Although only a verbal commitment till now, Spanish publication El Mundo quoted the prosecution sources as saying the agreement had been "sealed" and would be formalised in the next few weeks.

Similar to tax evasion claims on Cristiano Ronaldo, Mourinho is also handled by Jorge Mendes’ company Gestifute and was being probed on image rights, same for which the Portugal captain was tried.

Mourinho had claimed last November that he had indeed paid all his taxes and said the case was closed after he appeared before an investigating judge in Madrid. However, court officials confirmed afterwards he was still being probed.

Prosecutors alleged Mourinho owed the Spanish state almost £2.9m in undeclared revenue relating to image rights in 2011 and 2012. The current Manchester United manager allegedly signed off his image rights to a Kooper Services in the British Virgin Islands, which was then transferred in a third-party agreement via off-shore accounts.

The prosecutors claim that false information was given to Spain's Tax Agency during a 2015 probe, prompting them to reopen a case that had been archived after Mourinho paid a six-figure fine.

"I answered, I didn’t contest it, I paid and I signed an official agreement with the state under which everything was definitively closed.

“That’s why I’ve been here five minutes today to say to the judge exactly what I’m telling you," Mourinho was quoted as saying in media.

Meanwhile Ronaldo too faces an ongoing tax fraud investigation. Prosecutors claim he evaded £13.1m in tax on image rights between 2011 and 2014.