{"id":1129464,"date":"2022-06-21T07:55:35","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T07:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/06\/21\/cameroon-fa-boss-samuel-etoo-pleads-guilty-to-3-2m-tax-fraud\/"},"modified":"2022-06-21T07:55:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T07:55:35","slug":"cameroon-fa-boss-samuel-etoo-pleads-guilty-to-3-2m-tax-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/06\/21\/cameroon-fa-boss-samuel-etoo-pleads-guilty-to-3-2m-tax-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon FA boss Samuel Eto&#8217;o pleads guilty to \u00a33.2m tax fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"391\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/426949821_896186-Copy-696x391.jpg\"   alt=\"Cameroonian football legend, Samuel Eto'o\" title=\"Cameroonian football legend, Samuel Eto'o\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cameroonian football legend, Samuel Eto&#8217;o<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>   <!--  --><\/p>\n<p>Former Cameroon forward Samuel Eto\u2019o has pleaded guilty to a \u00a33.2m tax fraud relating to his image rights while playing for Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>The four-time African footballer of the year was given a 22-month suspended prison sentence when he appeared at court in Spain on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>He must repay the money he owes, along with a fine of \u00a31.55m.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors accused Eto\u2019o of failing to declare income from the transfer of image rights between 2006 and 2009.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/_125549821_ba0a0c93950a2216730180d9d3b564c0e11ea0b0.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption><strong>Eto\u2019o appeared at the Ciudad de la Justicia court in Barcelona on Monday\/ Image Credit: EPA<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Eto\u2019o is the latest in a long list of foreign players and managers to have been prosecuted for tax fraud in Spain in recent years, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Jose Mourinho and Neymar.<\/p>\n<p>The 41-year-old, now the president of the Cameroonian football federation, joined Barcelona in 2004, age 23. He also played for Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Everton during his career, before retiring in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>He appeared at the Ciudad de la Justicia court in Barcelona with his former agent Jose Maria Mesalles, who was given a 12 month suspended sentence and a fine.<\/p>\n<p>The court heard that Eto\u2019o transferred his image rights to a company based in Hungary which declared his earnings in that country, where the tax rate is one of the \u201clowest in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI admit the facts and I am going to pay what I\u2019m due, but let it be known that I was a just a child then and that I always did what my former agent Jose Maria Mesalles, who I considered like a father, asked me to do at that time,\u201d Eto\u2019o told the court.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"E1cyV5AATkk\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ghana records first COVID death in 2022 - GMA \u2013 Adom TV News (20-6-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E1cyV5AATkk?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cameroonian football legend, Samuel Eto&#8217;o Former Cameroon forward Samuel Eto\u2019o has pleaded guilty to a \u00a33.2m tax fraud relating to his image rights while playing for Barcelona. The four-time African footballer of the year was given a 22-month suspended prison sentence when he appeared at court in Spain on Monday. He must repay the money [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1129466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[17494,566,711,4069,5504,12871,8384,2889,1564],"class_list":["post-1129464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-32m","tag-boss","tag-cameroon","tag-etoo","tag-fraud","tag-guilty","tag-pleads","tag-samuel","tag-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}