Shakira’s tax evasion case is about her heated battle with Spanish authorities over the allegation that she failed to pay nearly $14 million in taxes.

During the period from 2012 to 2014, prosecutors in the European country accused the singer of withholding 14.5 million euros in taxes. Shakira’s official residence was listed in the Bahamas, but she owed Spain taxes because she lived in Catalonia at the time.

In response to the allegations, the Grammy winner said she didn’t spend 183 days a year in Spain at that time. She said the Spanish government is trying to make an example of her. In addition, she said she had paid everything they said she owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So, as of today, she owes them nothing.

It also seemed like Shakira’s case was similar to other celebrities who got into trouble with the Spanish tax system. Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, was charged with evading nearly 15 million euros in taxes between 2010 and 2014. He was sentenced to 23 months in prison but avoided jail time after paying a fine of nearly 19 million euros.

When Shakira’s name appeared in the Paradise Papers, a leak about offshore investments in November 2017, the investigation started. A leak revealed the Latin Grammy winner’s “musical assets, intellectual property rights, and trademarks” were held by a company in Malta, which has been accused of being a tax haven. According to the musician’s lawyer, the Maltese company “fills all legal requirements.”

With her then-boyfriend Gerard Piqué, Shakira bought a home in Barcelona in 2012. The Colombian native and the soccer star split up after 12 years together in June 2022.

“We regret to inform you that we have decided to separate,” the couple said in a joint statement at the time. “Our children are our highest priority, so please respect their privacy during this time.”

“It’s been tough not only for me but also for my kids,” Shakira told a magazine in September 2022 when she admitted that the tax fraud allegations and the split from Piqué had caused one of the most difficult times of her life. “It’s been really hard not only for me but also for my kids,” she said at the time. “Incredibly difficult.”

Here are all the details you need to know about Shakira’s tax evasion case, so keep scrolling to learn more.

What Has Shakira Been Accused Of?

During the period from 2012 to 2014, Spanish prosecutors charged the “Whenever, Wherever” singer with failing to pay 14.5 million euros in taxes. Although Shakira claimed that she was residing in the Bahamas during this period, authorities claim that she lived in Barcelona, in a home she purchased with Piqué in May 2012. Meanwhile, the singer claims that she moved to the Spanish city in 2015.

How Did She Respond?

According to her, she’s already paid what she owed plus interest, and she denies any wrongdoing. “Shakira has always cooperated and followed the law, demonstrating impeccable conduct as an individual and a taxpayer, and faithfully following the advice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, an internationally acclaimed tax firm,” a spokesperson said in July 2022. Despite the Spanish Tax Office losing one of every two lawsuits with its taxpayers, Shakira is confident that her innocence will be proven by the end of the legal process.

Is Shakira’s Tax Evasion Case Going To Trial?

After Shakira rejected a settlement offer from tax authorities, a Spanish judge approved a trial for September 2022. The court, based in the town of Esplugues de Llobregat, has determined that the “Beautiful Liar” artist will face six counts of tax fraud. The trial date has not yet been determined by the court.

If you are involved in a similar situation with your taxes or have some tax debt you wish to resolve, companies like the Tax Defense Network can assist you during the process and help you save money.

What Are The Possible Consequences?

As of July 2022, Spanish prosecutors have announced that they will be seeking a prison sentence of eight years as well as a fine of 23 million euros for Shakira.

What Shakira Has To Say

The Spanish government’s case against Shakira was called a “smear campaign” in court documents obtained by TMZ in November 2022. According to the pop star, she wasn’t a Spanish resident during that time and would only have had to pay taxes if she lived there 183 days a year. Instead, she paid more than $10 million in taxes to the United States, where she was being paid to appear on The Voice. It wasn’t until 2015 that Shakira changed her tax residency to Spain.

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When do you think of the term “the godmother,” who comes to mind?

For most people, it would be someone like the infamous mobster boss, Al Capone. However, there is another woman who has also earned this title – Griselda Blanco. Here are 10 facts about her that you may not know.

1. Griselda Blanco was one of the most ruthless drug lords of her time

Yes, Griselda Blanco was definitely one of the most ruthless drug lords of her time. She was known for being extremely violent and heartless, and she weapons in order to gain control over enemy territory. She also frequently ordered assassinations, and would often kill people who competed with her or crossed her in any way. She was truly a feared individual, and there’s no doubt that she helped shape the underworld as we know it today.

2. She was born in Colombia and started her criminal career at a young age, smuggling drugs into the US

Griselda Blanco was born in Colombia in 1943. She first became involved in the drug trade as a young woman, and quickly gained a reputation for being ruthless and violent. She is believed to have been responsible for over 200 murders.

In the early 1970s, Blanco moved to Miami and became one of the most powerful cocaine traffickers in the city. Her organization was known for its brutality, and she herself was known as “The Queen of Cocaine.” She was eventually arrested and sentenced to prison, but she continued to run her business from behind bars.

After her release from prison in 1992, Blanco returned to Colombia. In 2004, she was gunned down by rival drug dealers.

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3. She quickly rose to power in Miami’s cocaine trade, becoming one of the most feared drug dealers in the city

Griselda Blanco quickly rose to power in Miami’s cocaine trade, becoming one of the most feared drug lords in the city. her ruthless tactics and willingness to kill anyone who crossed her made her a force to be reckoned with. countries like the united states began to take notice of her increasing power and influence, and she was eventually brought down by law enforcement. however, even in death, she remains an enigmatic figure whose legend continues to grow.

4. Blanco is believed to be responsible for over 200 murders, including that of her own husband

She is believed to have been responsible for over 200 murders. Among her victims were her own husband and son. She was eventually killed in 2012 by a gang of assassins.

5. She was finally arrested and deported to Colombia

Griselda Blanco was finally arrested in September of 2012, after years on the run from authorities. She was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of drug conspiracy and murder charges stemming from her time as a powerful drug lord in Miami in the 1970s and 80s.

6. Blanco is thought to have inspired the character of Tony Montana in the film Scarface

According to many who knew her, Griselda Blanco was the real-life inspiration for the character of Tony Montana in the classic film Scarface.

7. In 2012, a documentary about her life called Cocaine Cowboys was released

Yes, a documentary about her life called Cocaine Cowboys was released. The movie follows the rise and fall of Griselda Blanco, a notorious cocaine kingpin who ruled Miami’s drug trade in the 1970s and early 1980s. After being deported from the United States to Colombia in 1985, Blanco ordered dozens of murders in Colombia before she was assassinated in September 2012.

8. Blanco remains one of the most infamous drug lords in history

She became one of the most powerful and feared drug lords in Colombia. Known as “the Godmother,” she was the first woman to traffic cocaine successfully on a large scale.

Her ruthless tactics, combined with her flamboyant lifestyle and connections to some of Miami’s most powerful crime figures, made her one of the most feared and infamous drug lords in history. After several stints in prison, she was finally killed in 2012 while out on bail awaiting trial for drug trafficking charges.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) is a dystopian movie produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film is adapted from Anthony’s Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962). “In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn’t go as planned,” said Scott Cooper of Florida.

Alex de Large, the central character, is played by Malcolm McDowell. He’s an antisocial yet charismatic delinquent. His self-professed interests are classical music (Beethoven in particular), committing rape, theft, and “ultra-violence”.

Alex heads up a band of thugs he calls his droogs (from the Russian word for friend or buddy).

The movie charts the mayhem caused by Alex, Pete, Dim, and Georgie. The action then shifts to the experimental conditioning used for rehabilitation, the Ludovico Technique.

Alex narrates using Nadsat, a form of slang based on Slavic languages and English with a smattering of cockney rhyming slang.

Clockwork Orange Plot

The action takes place in Britain in the near future with Alex and his band of droogs running amok.

After an evening of ultra-violence fueled by the narcotic “milk-plus” they drink, the first fight with a rival gang. Next, the droogs head to the home of a writer where they beat him to the extent he’s crippled for life. Alex proceeds to rape his wife as he sings “Singin’ In The Rain”.

The next day, Alex is apprehended at home while truanting from school. His probation officer Deltoid pulls him up.

Alex’s droogs start demanding better remuneration and more equality. Alex’s response is to attack them.

While invading the home of a “cat lady”, Alex kills her. When he tries to flee, Dim smashes him in the face with a bottle and he is left waiting to be arrested.

Alex is in custody where he learns from Deltoid that the cat lady is dead. He’s sentenced to 14 years for murder.

When he’s 2 years into his jail sentence, Alex signs up willingly for the experimental Ludovico Technique, a new form of aversion therapy. His is strapped down, injected with drugs, and his eyes clamped upon. He is then left with no choice but to watch the grotesque images of sex and violence unfolding on screen. The images are accompanied by a soundtrack of his favorite music by Mozart. Alex is sickened by what he sees and begs for the treatment to end.

A fortnight later, Alex is wheeled out by the Minister to demonstrate the efficacy of the new therapy to a gathering of officials. When he is unable to fight back against an actor who cruelly taunts him and becomes ill when a topless woman comes onto him, the chaplain states that Alex has been robbed of free will. The Minister proclaims the Ludovico a resounding success that will slash crime and help relieve prison overcrowding.

Released as a free man, Alex discovers all his possessions have been sold to compensate his victims while his parents have rented out his room.

Alex is attacked by a vagrant he attacked years before. Rescued by two policemen, these turn out to be his old droogs, Georgie and Dim. They drive Alex to the countryside where they beat him and almost drown him before leaving him for dead. Alex pitches up at the home of the writer he crippled. Although the writer does not recognize Alex, he sees him as a political weapon.

Alex attempts suicide by jumping out of the window. He wakes in the hospital with broken bones. Subjected to a battery of psychological tests, he discovers he is no longer averse to sex and violence.

When the Minister arrives, he apologizes to Alex offering to take care of him with a job as long as he cooperates. The movie ends with Alex stating, “I was cured, all right!”

Can You Benefit From Using CBD For Sleep?

Production

McDowell was chosen for the role of Alex after Kubrick saw him in the film if…. (1968). He also helped Kubrick on the uniform of Alex’s gang, when he showed Kubrick the cricket whites he had. Kubrick asked him to put the box (jockstrap) not under but on top of the costume.

During the filming of the Ludovico technique scene, McDowell scratched a cornea and was temporarily blinded. The doctor standing next to him in the scene, dropping saline solution into Alex’s forced-open eyes, was a real physician present to prevent the actor’s eyes from drying. McDowell also cracked some ribs filming the humiliation stage show. A unique special effect technique was used when Alex jumps out of the window in an attempt to commit suicide and the viewer sees the ground approaching the camera until collision, i.e., as if from Alex’s point of view. This effect was achieved by dropping a Newman Sinclair clockwork camera in a box, lens-first, from the third story of the Corus Hotel. To Kubrick’s surprise, the camera survived six takes.

On 24 February 1971, the last day of shooting, Progress Report No. 113 has a summary of all the footage shot to date: 39,880 feet wasted, 377,090 feet exposed, 13,120 feet remain as short ends with a total of 452,960 feet used. Sound: 225,880 feet printed from 288 1/4″ reel to reel tapes.

Adaptation

The cinematic adaptation of A Clockwork Orange (1962) was not initially planned. Screenplay writer Terry Southern gave Kubrick a copy of the novel, but, as he was developing a Napoleon Bonaparte-related project, Kubrick put it aside. Kubrick’s wife, in an interview, stated she then gave him the novel after having read it. It had an immediate impact. Of his enthusiasm for it, Kubrick said, “I was excited by everything about it: the plot, the ideas, the characters, and, of course, the language. The story functions, of course, on several levels: political, sociological, philosophical, and, what’s most important, on a dreamlike psychological-symbolic level.” Kubrick wrote a screenplay faithful to the novel, saying, “I think whatever Burgess had to say about the story was said in the book, but I did invent a few useful narrative ideas and reshape some of the scenes.” Kubrick based the script on the shortened US edition of the book, which omitted the final chapter.

Direction

Kubrick was a perfectionist who researched meticulously, with thousands of photographs taken of potential locations, as well as many scenes took; however, per Malcolm McDowell, he usually “got it right” early on, so there were few takers. So meticulous was Kubrick that McDowell stated “If Kubrick hadn’t been a film director he’d have been a General Chief of Staff of the US Forces. No matter what it is—even if it’s a question of buying a shampoo it goes through him. He just likes total control.”Filming took place between September 1970 and April 1971, making A Clockwork Orange the quickest film shoot in his career. Technically, to achieve and convey the fantastic, dream-like quality of the story, he filmed with extremely wide-angle lenses such as the Kinoptik Tegea 9.8mm for 35mm Arriflex cameras.

Critical reception

A Clockwork Orange was released to critical acclaim.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88%.

Box office

The film was a box-office success grossing more than $26 million in the United States and Canada on a budget of $2.2 million.

The film was the most popular film of 1972 in France with 7,611,745 admissions.

The film was re-released in North America in 1973 and earned $1.5 million in rentals.

In the United States, A Clockwork Orange was given an X rating in its original release in 1972. Later, Kubrick replaced approximately 30 seconds of sexually explicit footage from two scenes with less explicit action to obtain an R rating re-release later in 1972. Current DVDs present the original version (reclassified with an “R” rating), and only some of the early 1980s VHS editions are the edited version.

Because of the explicit sex and violence, The National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures rated it C (“Condemned”), a rating which forbade Roman Catholics from seeing the film. In 1982, the Office abolished the “Condemned” rating. Subsequently, films deemed to have unacceptable levels of sex and violence by the Conference of Bishops are rated O, “Morally Offensive”.

British withdrawal

Although it was passed uncut for UK cinemas in December 1971, British authorities considered the sexual violence in the film to be extreme.

In March 1972, during the trial of a 14-year-old male accused of the manslaughter of a classmate, the prosecutor referred to A Clockwork Orange, suggesting that the film had a macabre relevance to the case. The film was also linked to the murder of an elderly vagrant by a 16-year-old boy in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, who pleaded guilty after telling police that friends had told him of the film “and the beating up of an old boy like this one”. Roger Gray QC, for the defense, told the court that “the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt”. The press also blamed the film for a rape in which the attackers sang “Singin’ in the Rain” as “Singin’ in the Rape”. Christiane Kubrick, the director’s wife, has said that the family received threats and had protesters outside their homes.

The film was withdrawn from British release in 1973 by Warner Brothers at the request of Kubrick.

Censorship in other countries

In Ireland, the film was banned on 10 April 1973. Warner Bros. decided against appealing the decision. Eventually, the film was passed uncut for cinema on 13 December 1999 and released on 17 March 2000. The re-release poster, a replica of the original British version, was rejected due to the words “ultra-violence” and “rape” in the tagline. Sheamus Smith explained his rejection to the Irish Times:

I believe that the use of those words in the context of advertising would be offensive and inappropriate.

In Singapore, the film was banned for over 30 years, before an attempt at release was made in 2006. However, the submission for an M18 rating was rejected, and the ban was not lifted. The ban was later lifted and the film was shown uncut (with an R21 rating) on 28 October 2011, as part of the Perspectives Film Festival.

In South Africa, it was banned under the apartheid regime for 13 years, then in 1984 was released with one cut and only made available to people over the age of 21. It was banned in South Korea and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Nova Scotia. The Maritime Film Classification Board also reversed the ban eventually. Both jurisdictions now grant an R rating to the film.