But his relaxed mood was an act. In fact, La Finca has been in turmoil for months over the Football Leaks revelations.
Last winter, DER SPIEGEL reported on the offshore activities of trainer José Mourinho. The neurotic top coach at Manchester United is also a longstanding Mendes client. After the publication of the exposé, attorney Osório de Castro wrote the following words to Mourinho's London PR firm: "The house is burning."
Mourinho also once lived in La Finca. During his tenure as trainer at Real Madrid, from 2010 to 2013, he rented a villa for 20,000 euros a month. Mourinho had also had a tax model similar to that of the other Mendes clients developed for himself. The money -- about 6 million euros in 2011 and 2012 alone, was transferred from the Irish firms MIM and Polaris to an offshore company in the Caribbean, to which the trainer had relinquished his marketing rights.
Since Mourinho was audited by the Spanish tax authorities in July 2014, the construct was discovered and the top trainer was ordered to pay a fine of 1.15 million euros a year later. He had gotten off lightly, and the case appeared to be resolved for Mourinho. But then DER SPIEGEL and its partners at European Investigative Collaborations, a research network, published details about his Caribbean company, which was backed by a trust in New Zealand. Ten days later, the New Zealand tax authority, Inland Revenue, contacted the trust in Auckland and demanded records.
Mourinho and his associates were in turmoil. In an email, an attorney wrote that he was "certain" that the British tax authorities would now review Mourinho's tax position, as well. For this reason, the attorney advised against bringing any documents into the UK. Mourinho, who has been working for Manchester United since the summer of 2016, had had enough. The star trainer's banker informed his attorney: "To avoid any surprise or any media issue for the future," the coach had "decided to liquidate all structures that he owns."
This realization comes too late to fend off the investigations by the Spanish tax authorities. They have taken Mourinho's Irish-Caribbean-New Zealand network of companies to task a second time and are now accusing him of not having paid taxes on more than 7 million euros in advertising revenues for 2011 and 2012, leading to an estimated tax loss of 3.3 million euros. The case could acquire criminal relevance, now that it has been taken up by the white-collar crime division of the Madrid public prosecutor's office. Mourinho claims he is unaware of any wrongdoing.
http://www.spiegel.de/international...t-the-entire-football-industry-a-1159150.html
Last winter, DER SPIEGEL reported on the offshore activities of trainer José Mourinho. The neurotic top coach at Manchester United is also a longstanding Mendes client. After the publication of the exposé, attorney Osório de Castro wrote the following words to Mourinho's London PR firm: "The house is burning."
Mourinho also once lived in La Finca. During his tenure as trainer at Real Madrid, from 2010 to 2013, he rented a villa for 20,000 euros a month. Mourinho had also had a tax model similar to that of the other Mendes clients developed for himself. The money -- about 6 million euros in 2011 and 2012 alone, was transferred from the Irish firms MIM and Polaris to an offshore company in the Caribbean, to which the trainer had relinquished his marketing rights.
Since Mourinho was audited by the Spanish tax authorities in July 2014, the construct was discovered and the top trainer was ordered to pay a fine of 1.15 million euros a year later. He had gotten off lightly, and the case appeared to be resolved for Mourinho. But then DER SPIEGEL and its partners at European Investigative Collaborations, a research network, published details about his Caribbean company, which was backed by a trust in New Zealand. Ten days later, the New Zealand tax authority, Inland Revenue, contacted the trust in Auckland and demanded records.
Mourinho and his associates were in turmoil. In an email, an attorney wrote that he was "certain" that the British tax authorities would now review Mourinho's tax position, as well. For this reason, the attorney advised against bringing any documents into the UK. Mourinho, who has been working for Manchester United since the summer of 2016, had had enough. The star trainer's banker informed his attorney: "To avoid any surprise or any media issue for the future," the coach had "decided to liquidate all structures that he owns."
This realization comes too late to fend off the investigations by the Spanish tax authorities. They have taken Mourinho's Irish-Caribbean-New Zealand network of companies to task a second time and are now accusing him of not having paid taxes on more than 7 million euros in advertising revenues for 2011 and 2012, leading to an estimated tax loss of 3.3 million euros. The case could acquire criminal relevance, now that it has been taken up by the white-collar crime division of the Madrid public prosecutor's office. Mourinho claims he is unaware of any wrongdoing.
http://www.spiegel.de/international...t-the-entire-football-industry-a-1159150.html
