Income from the sale of Messi's image rights passed first through the companies in Britain and Switzerland before it was transferred to Uruguay. Uruguay-based Jenbril was 100 percent owned by Messi and he poured his image rights earnings in there. The income related to Messi's image rights that was allegedly hidden from Spanish tax authorities in this way during this time includes endorsement deals with Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company. It operated with two other firms in Britain which handled Messi's image rights before they were transferred to Belize, according to Spanish prosecutors who consider the firms to be shell companies. UruguayThe Messi family then set up a similar structure in Uruguay where the revenues from the player's image rights would not be subject to tax payments, according to the mastermind of this scheme, Barcelona lawyer Angel Juarez.

Source: Standard Digital June 02, 2016 11:59 UTC