Shakira on her tax fraud case: "I've paid everything they claimed I owed"

Back in July it was revealed that a Spanish prosecutor was looking to ask a court to give Shakira an eight-year prison sentence over a tax fraud case, where the Colombian star is accused of not paying taxes in Spain between 2012 and 2014.

Shakira is accused of not paying the Spanish government €14.5 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014, but in a new interview with ELLE, Shakira spoke about the case for the first time, stating that the accusations are "false" and she's "paid everything they claimed I owed."

When asked why she decided to fight against the accusations rather than settling, Shakira said, "Because I have to fight for what I believe; because these are false accusations. First of all, I didn’t spend 183 days per year at that time at all. I was busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world. Second, I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So as of today, I owe zero to them. And finally, I was advised by one of the four biggest tax specialist firms in the world, PricewaterhouseCoopers, so I was confident that I was doing things correctly and transparently from day one."

She also claimed the accusers have "resorted to a salacious press campaign to try to sway people," and said she's "confident that I have enough proof to support my case and that justice will prevail in my favour."

Before addressing the case, Shakira said she has "a full album’s worth of music that I’m so excited about," and mentioned that the album will have songs in Spanish and English, and "some are collaborations".