Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has reportedly accepted a one-year prison sentence as part of a plea bargain deal with prosecutors accusing him of a £2.9million (€3.3m) tax fraud.
The Old Trafford manager has accepted a six-month jail sentence for each of the two financial crimes he was accused of after accepting wrongdoing as part of the agreement with prosecutors, respected Spanish newspaper El Mundo said on Tuesday.
The investigating court in Madrid which has led the criminal probe into Mourinho — Pozuelo de Alarcon Court Number four — is expected to be informed about the deal in the coming days.
El Mundo reported the 55-year-old, whose future at United has been called into question after a disappointing start to the season, had also agreed to pay a fine totalling £1.78m (€1.98m) representing 60 per cent of the amount defrauded.
Prosecutors and court officials could not be reached early on Tuesday morning for comment.
First-time offenders in Spain do not normally serve jail sentences of two years or less – meaning the one-year jail term Mourinho has reportedly accepted for two counts of tax fraud will almost certainly be suspended at a later date after the investigating court has been officially informed of the situation.
Mourinho’s tax affairs were placed under new scrutiny last year.
Prosecutors alleged Mourinho owed the Spanish state almost £2.9m in undeclared revenue relating to image rights in 2011 and 2012 — when he was in charge of Real Madrid.
The allegations involved claims false information was given to Spain’s Tax Agency during a 2015 probe, prompting prosecutors to reopen a case that had been archived after Mourinho paid a six-figure fine.
 One of the claims was that the Spanish taxman was supplied with fictitious expenses to make it appear an offshore shell company Mourinho benefited from was functioning as an active firm.
The United manager played down any suggestion of wrongdoing after a brief behind-closed-doors hearing at Pozuelo de Alarcon Court of Investigation No 4 last November.
He insisted he had left Spain four years earlier with the ‘information and conviction his tax situation was perfectly legal’ and regularised his situation a couple of years later after he was told to pay more cash following a tax probe.
He told reporters: ‘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.’
His claims led to inaccurate reports at the time he had resolved his tax problems.
A court source confirmed after the hearing the criminal investigation would continue, revealing Mourinho had only answered the questions of his lawyer during his court quiz and not those of the other lawyers present including the state prosecutor.
El Mundo reported earlier this year the United boss had reached an out-of-court settlement with Spanish prosecutors over his tax case, but details of the agreement were not revealed at the time.
Former Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo accepted a two-year prison sentence — also set to be suspended — earlier this summer after reaching a deal with prosecutors over his tax fraud case.
He also agreed to pay a fine of more than £15m (€16.7m) after pleading guilty to evading £13.1m (€14.7m) in tax on image rights between 2011 and 2014.
OTHER STARS CAUGHT UP IN SPANISH TAX CONTROVERSY
Several high-profile footballers have fallen foul of the Spanish authorities in recent years. But first-time offenders in the country do not normally serve jail sentences of two years or less.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Accepted a two-year suspended prison sentence this summer after making a deal over his tax fraud case.
Agreed to pay a fine of more than £15m (€16.7m) after pleading guilty to evading £13.1m(€14.7m) in tax on image rights between 2011 and 2014.
Lionel Messi – Handed a 21-month prison sentence in 2016 for tax fraud which was reduced to a fine of €252,000 (£227,000).
Messi and his father Jorge were found guilty of defrauding Spain of €4.1m between 2007 and 2009. They were accused of using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.
Messi was also fined about €2m and his father €1.5m. They made a voluntary €5m ‘corrective payment’, which covered the alleged unpaid tax plus interest, in August 2013.
Neymar – Was cleared of fraud in May 2017 but faces trial for corruption in Spain over his 2013 transfer from Santos to Barcelona.
He, his parents, current and former Barcelona presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, the club and NN Consultoria, the company Neymar started with his family, were all ordered to stand trial.
Prosecutors want Neymar to be fined €10m (£9m) and given a two-year jail sentence. He was earlier found guilty in his native Brazil for tax fraud on money earned while playing for Santos.
Javier Mascherano – Received a one-year suspended prison sentence for tax fraud.
Admitted two counts of fraud after failing to declare earnings in 2011 and 2012 totalling €1.5m (£1.35m) and appeared in court in January 2016, aiming to avoid going to prison.
Marcelo – Real Madrid player was accused of tax fraud totalling €490,000 (£442,000) in a case dating back to 2013.
After appearing in court, he agreed to pay €490,917.70 to the Spanish treasury. Prosecutors brought the case forward after the Brazilian was accused of concealing image rights income in the tax years 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Xabi Alonso – Faces a possible five-year jail term after he was accused of tax fraud in March.
Prosecutors say he owes nearly €2m (£1.7m) in tax related to earnings from undeclared image rights from 2010 to 2012, when he was playing for Real Madrid.
Alonso denies any wrongdoing but prosecutors are also seeking a fine of €4m and demanding he pays back what he allegedly owes the Spanish tax office.
Alexis Sanchez – Accepted a 16-month suspended jail sentence for tax fraud in exchange for avoiding a trial.
Ex-Barcelona star faced a trial in Spain over unpaid taxes totalling around €1m (£886,000) deriving from image rights deals in 2012 and 2013.
When Sanchez was first accused in 2016, his agent said the forward had ‘fully obeyed’ the law and all image rights income ‘has been declared’.
Luka Modric – Paid Spanish authorities close to €1m to settle image rights tax case.
Appeared briefly in court in January after being accused of defrauding the taz man of €870,728 (£785,000) in 2013 and 2014.
Angel Di Maria – Given a suspended one-year jail sentence and fined £1.76m for tax fraud.
He admitted two counts of fraud (relating to image rights) totalling £1.16m during his four-year stint at Real Madrid between 2010 and 2014.
Di Maria made a deal with Spanish tax authorities to avoid a trial, with each of the two counts coming with a six-month sentence.
(Daily Mail)
