A FIRM representing Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and former player Cristiano Ronaldo has denied designing ways to help clients avoid millions in taxes.
The allegations are reported by an international consortium of media organisations after a huge data leak of more than 18 million documents.
Ronaldo, who currently plays for Spanish team Real Madrid, is alleged by one of the publications, Dutch website NRC, to have moved 63.5 million euro to a tax haven in the Virgin Islands at the end of 2014. It is claimed that Mourinho’s complex financial affairs involved keeping money in a Swiss bank account owned by a British Virgin Islands-registered company.
Information was originally passed from the Football Leaks whistleblowing site to German publication Der Spiegel earlier this year, and investigated by 60 journalists. Gestifute, the company which provides “career management” for sporting professionals, has rejected an allegation of facilitating tax avoidance. In a statement the firm said: “Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho are fully compliant with their tax obligations.”
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