Neymar fined €45million for tax fraud March 18, 2016

Neymar has been fined 188.8 million Brazilian reals (€45.9m) after being found guilty of tax fraud for failure to report earnings from his contracts with Santos, Barcelona and Nike, according to Brazil newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

According to the court documents, Neymar made use of his businesses (Neymar Sport e Marketing, N & N Consultoria, N & N Administracao de Bens) to avoid paying €56.4m between 2012 and 2014.

The court claims that false contracts were created to avoid paying the full amount of taxes. The court last year froze assets related to Neymar valued at about 189 million Brazilian reals (€42m) due to the allegations of tax evasion.

“We studied the information regarding the tax case in question, Neymar, the three businesses and his business partners [parents of the player] and we found that there were fraudulent business practices,” wrote Develly Claudia Montez, who performed the audit for the court.

Neymar can appeal the ruling.

Neymar is also under investigation in Spanish court over his transfer from Santos to Barcelona in 2013. Earlier this year he testified in court along with his father. Neymar had been fined earlier over unpaid taxes in Brazil and the decision was currently under appeal.