They denounced Messi and his foundation for fraud and money laundering

The complaint, not yet admitted for treatment, was filed by Federico Rettori, an Argentinian who worked for the Messi Foundation and resides on the island of Mallorca.

Rettori had filed a similar complaint last year in Argentina. According to judicial sources, a preliminary investigation is under way for alleged fraud and the possibility of misappropriation of funds to tax havens, although for the moment neither the Barcelona player nor his father is charged.

Rettori's request in Spain is directed also against the brother of the football player Rodrigo and against "all the unidentified people who, in one way or another, have managed or managed funds in the Leo Messi Foundation", according to the text.

And according to the document,The funds received "were originally intended for social actions and were instead redirected to another type of private activities or accounts different from those declared by said foundation".

In more detail, Rettori's complaint, dated Wednesday in Madrid, states that the Messi Foundation, created in Barcelona in 2007, did not register in the Catalan Register of Foundations until 2013, so it would have received funds during these years and "operated without any control or responsibility in any official body".

Likewise, he states that, when the Leo Messi Argentina Foundation was created in 2009, "there was no report or report" for nine years at the Inspectorate General of Legal Persons (IGPJ) .

"As in the case of Spain, there are millions of dollars of income that are not reflected in any official body, that is to say, that they have never been declared ", adds the trial, which is full of links to press articles published on the Internet about allegations of irregularities within the Messi Foundation.

The Barcelona striker had already been sentenced for tax evasion in Spain in 2016. He had been fined 2 million euros and sentenced to 21 months imprisonment and then a additional fine of 252,000 euros.