Bridges website He received with joy from his home in London the news of his acquittal. He had been waiting for eight months for a verdict that finally arrived threatening his life with freedom. The prosecutor’s office requested a 24-year prison term for the motorcycle world champion I am not a tax fraud offender. The Barcelona court acquitted him forcibly. Against the criteria for the indictment, the judges concluded that between 2010 and 2014 Sito Pons could not have been considered a tax resident in Spain but rather in Monaco and the United Kingdom, and stressed that he spent most of the year “moving between circuits around the world,” according to the decision.
The current director of Pons Racing – the team that competes in the Moto 2 class of the motorcycle world championship – has been one of the targets of the IRS in its campaign to prosecute tax fraud by public figures and elite athletes. After investigating his assets, the Public Prosecutor’s Office sued him in 2016 for alleged fraud of nearly half a million euros in personal income tax. Later, this amount was raised to 2.7 million euros. In addition to the prison sentence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested a fine of 12 million on the grounds that he had spent more than half the year in Spain and had to pay personal income tax. A court investigated the case Which, as is usually the case in tax fraud offences, continued until despair. Last February, after six years of painstaking investigation, the trial was held.
As a racer, Cito Pons was declared 250cc World Champion in 1988 and 1999. On questionable dates (from 2010 to 2014), he ran the Pons Racing Team, which has competed in both the MotoGP World Series and the World Series by Renault. The Public Prosecutor’s Office considers that he ran his company from offices in Castelbisbal (Barcelona) and that when he went to competitions, he usually departed from El Prat Airport. According to the indictment, renting a house in Monaco – and obtaining a residence permit by the country’s authorities – was a preparation to avoid paying taxes in Spain, since there were no records of, for example, receipts for water or electricity in that house.
However, the ruling gives full credence to the statement of Cito Pons, who explained that during this period he traveled around the world and settled first in Monaco and then in London, where he has lived since 2013. Attorney Miriam Kompany – from the law firm Mullins – delivered a final ruling in 2011 it was said In it it was proved that her client was Monaco to invalidate the thesis of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. As for London, he gave the notices of the administration to his home in that city.
The Barcelona court concluded that “most of the economic interests and financial assets” of Sito Ponce, as well as “the core of its economic activity” were concentrated in those years outside Spain. Mullins’ office welcomed the decision and celebrated that “accusations leveled against him, without any basis, of serious tax fraud” had been “totally discredited.” Before the trial began, Sito Pons deposited nearly three million euros in security to cover his civil liability in the event of conviction. If the ruling is final – and it remains to be seen whether the prosecutor’s office or the tax agency appeals the decision – these amounts will be returned.
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