Shakira is under investigation for tax fraud

Shakira is in hot water after officials in Spain opened an investigation into her potential tax evasion.

In the Barcelona suburb of Esplugues de Llobregat, a magistrate “has opened an investigation against the Waka Waka hitmaker.”

In 2018, the Grammy-winning singer was charged with two charges of tax evasion. She is already on trial for alleged $16.2 million in tax evasion in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The Colombian-born performer, who currently resides in Miami, previously refuted the claims of tax fraud from 2012 to 2014 through her public relations business.

The judge claimed that Shakira and a financial consultant, who was also named in the judgment, used a succession of businesses in offshore tax havens to conceal the source of her income during those years.

She was charged with tax fraud for the first time in July 2021, when Barcelona prosecutors said she owed money since she lived in Spain for more than half the year between 2012 and 2014.

Authorities claim the artist owes them $13.9 million (£13 million). Shakira has maintained that her fiscal domicile at the time was in the Bahamas and has called the charges “fictional,” claiming that she had paid all of her debts.