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Former striker John Carew will be tried in Norwegian courts in August and will have to defend himself against alleged tax evasion charges.
With a career marked by stints with Valencia, West Ham, Lyon and Aston Villa, he has been accused of hiding a fortune worth £27m, 160m Rls.
He also accuses the player of avoiding paying about 500,000 pounds (3 million Brazilian riyals) between 2014 and 2019, and not declaring income up to one million pounds in the same period (6 million Brazilian reais). In 2012, the High Court of England declared Carew bankrupt.
“This is a serious case because it involves tax evasion over many years from a large amount of money,” explains Marian Bender, the attorney general in Oslo. If the facts are established, John Carew could face a six-year prison sentence, the maximum that Norwegian law provides for tax evasion cases.
The player, in turn, defends himself. “I got the wrong advice,” says John Caro, who claims he doesn’t understand tax law. In turn, attorney Berit Reiss-Andersen in charge of his defense highlights the following: “He erroneously believed he was a UK tax resident.”
Caro, who hung up his boots to devote himself to the world of cinema, was Lyon’s partner to striker Fred, of Fluminense. Before the 2014 World Cup, for example, he was in Granja Comary, wishing Brazil luck.
“I just came to support Fred,” Caro said at the time. “He’s been my friend for a long time. I told him he’d score two goals in the next game.”
