Montserrat Caballé, Spanish Soprano, Fails to Appear in Court to Settle Tax Case
The opera singer Montserrat Caballé failed to appear in a Spanish court this week to settle a tax fraud case, and her lawyer stepped down as her legal representative in the matter.
Ms. Caballé, who was summoned by a judge in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, did not explain her absence, although one of her assistants told the Spanish news agency EFE that she had been ill. No further details were provided.
Ms. Caballé’s lawyer, Santiago Ayesta, told the judge that he would no longer serve as the singer’s representative in the case as he could not endorse her legal strategy, the Spanish news media reported.
The court is expected to set another date for Ms. Caballé, 82, to appear. If she again fails to turn up, she could face new charges.
Ms. Caballé, a soprano and a star of the international opera stage for five decades, reached a deal with a prosecutor in December to receive a symbolic prison sentence of six months and to pay a fine of 254,000 euros, or about $286,000, for having falsely claimed residency in Andorra. The principality, wedged between Spain and France, has long thrived as a tax haven.
The provisional settlement, which is subject to the approval of a judge, would allow Ms. Caballé to avoid time in prison, because Spanish law normally applies prison terms for first-time offenders in tax cases only when the sentence is for two years or more.
Last year, Ms. Caballé was charged with failing to declare about €508,000 in income related to her work in 2010. She agreed to pay that sum back to the Spanish tax agency, even as the criminal case proceeded.
The investigation focused on whether Ms. Caballé had falsely claimed residency in Andorra to avoid paying Spanish income taxes. The prosecution said that she spent most of her time in Barcelona and only occasionally traveled to Andorra.
Ms. Caballé also agreed to pay about €72,000 to the Spanish tax agency as interest on unpaid taxes for the work she did not declare, which included concerts and recordings.
That work was paid in cash and with transfers into an account held at BancSabadell d’Andorra, according to the document that detailed the settlement reached with the prosecutor. The document was shown to The New York Times by a source on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to reveal its contents.
Spain has been increasing efforts to clamp down on financial fraud. In October, a judge ordered another famous resident of Barcelona, the soccer star Lionel Messi, to stand trial for tax evasion.
Mr. Messi, who has denied wrongdoing, is accused of failing to pay Spanish taxes on millions of euros from advertising contracts.
Ms. Caballé began singing at the Liceu opera house in Barcelona in 1962. Her international breakthrough came four years later, as a substitute in Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” at Carnegie Hall in New York, where she received a standing ovation.
Ms. Caballé performed in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2013, but for the most part she has stayed away from the stage in recent years and has been described in the Spanish news media as being in fragile health.
In December, she attended a concert of six sopranos that was held in her honor, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
