Messi to stand trial in Spain on 3 counts of tax fraud

MADRID (AP) — Lionel Messi will stand trial in Spain on three counts of tax fraud.

Court documents made public Thursday say a judge has rejected a request to clear the Barcelona player from wrongdoing and decided to charge him and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, with tax fraud.

Prosecutors had said Messi was not aware of his father’s unlawful activities, but the state attorney’s office contended that the Argentina forward knew enough to also be named in the case.

Messi and his father are accused of defrauding Spain’s tax office of 4 million euros ($4.5 million) in unpaid taxes from 2007-09.