They say "equal justice under law" and it's totally BS.
In italy like 15/20 years ago Valentino Rossi (the MotoGP legend) was targeted by the local tax agency.
He was traveling around the world pretty much all year for racing, so his manager suggested him to "live" in london (registering as non-domiciled)...
It wasn't a bad move at all... he paid pretty much nothing in UK as it was foreign income, zero in Italy, and all his money was funneled through
tax haven.
He had like thousands of proofs of flight tickets around the world, plus employment contracts, plus very important witnesses...
Yet the agency told him he was still tax resident in italy for the amount he didn't already pay in UK... and told him he owned them like
43m, that after fines and interests grew to like 110m for 4 years (no joke it's real. Imagine receiving a 110m tax bill
). And after that they added another case for the next 3 years or so... plus fines etc for that too.
The amount was huge in the news.
If that wasn't over the criminal threshold then I don't know what it is lol
Guess how it ended?
He settled it down with is lawyers and paid like 35m including fines and everything, and his
tax residency was forced back to italy (he promised he would stay there too for a while).
And had to smile at a photo-op with tax agency boss on simultaneous broadcast on all networks and newspapers.
Still a bargain compared to what they were asking. Yet he could've refused that, and start a tax case and risk it all in court.
Maybe he could've won in the end. Or maybe he wouldn't. You never know how trials end there...
And he couldn't even go back to his home country, the most famous italian guy at the time.
He wasn't exactly invisible. Every time he came back to italy after races there were pretty much dozens of pictures on newspapers about it...
his friends/relatives were all in italy. the merchandising/marketing stuff of his brands were pretty much done in italy.
He settled it all and paid.
Still, not a single day of jail done. Heard of people owing 100x less than that, haven't paid nor settled... and they are now wanted (voices say "hiding in dubai") and cannot even put a foot there nor travel with their passport
. Your right. She has money so will pay. I had in my head she was already rinsed dry by Spanish taxman and would struggle to settle. But now I can see the Spanish taxman salivating at a financial settlement as she has $$$$.
I don't even talk spanish but it sounds good and true to me.
