Former Barcelona player Arda Turan has been found guilty of tax fraud in Spain and given a one-year suspended sentence, The Associated Press reported, citing a Spanish court.
The court said the former Turkey midfielder committed two counts of tax fraud in 2015 and 2016. He was fined 630,000 euros ($684,000).
Turan joined Barcelona in 2015 from Atletico Madrid. He played for the Catalan club until he was loaned in January 2018 to Başakşehir. He later joined Galatasaray, where he played until retiring in 2022.
Spanish tax officials have caught several soccer stars for tax fraud over the past decade, including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho. Like Turan, none of these players or coaches has been put behind bars. Sentences for less than two years can be suspended for first-time offenders in Spain.
Turan’s name was recently also involved in a multi-million dollar fraudulent investment scheme involving some of the country’s best-known football stars and orchestrated by Seçil Erzan, a former branch manager at Denizbank.
Erzan managed former Galatasaray and current Panathinaikos coach Fatih Terim’s financial dealings and allegedly lured investors, including former football stars like Turan and others, with promises of astronomically high returns, as much as 40 percent a month, using Terim’s credentials to secure their trust. However, the victims were provided with little more than handwritten notes or simple papers as proof of their investments, a stark departure from standard banking practices.
