Monaco’s Ben Yedder gets suspended prison sentence for tax fraud in Spain

In Spain, prison sentences under two years for non-violent crimes rarely require a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.

Monaco’s French forward Wissam Ben Yedder (C) fights for the ball with Reims’ Dutch midfielder Azor Matusiwa (L) and Reims’ French goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf (R) during the French L1 football match. | Photo Credit: VALERY HACHE/AFP

A Spanish court has given AS Monaco striker Wissam Ben Yedder a six-month suspended prison sentence and fined him 133,799 euros ($145,961) for tax offences during his time as a Sevilla player, court documents showed on Tuesday.

In Spain, prison sentences under two years for non-violent crimes rarely require a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.

The sentence was agreed in a plea deal between Ben Yedder’s defence, the prosecutor and the state attorney who represented tax authorities.

French national Ben Yedder, who played for Sevilla between 2016 and 2019, failed to pay his taxes on time in 2017, according to the court document dated March 9 and disclosed on Tuesday.

Following a request from tax authorities in 2019, the striker paid 225,323 euros in back taxes but did not include interest received as income from movable capital and failed to declare a sponsorship contract with Adidas, the document said.

Ben Yedder later paid 51,007 euros to include those items plus interest.

Players such as Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Argentina’s Lionel Messi or Brazilian-Spanish player Diego Costa have also faced tax cases in Spain. They all agreed to settle by paying large fines. ($1 = 0.9167 euros)