BARCELONA/SAO PAULO: Barcelona superstar Neymar has been fined in his native Brazil over tax evasion.

He has been fined €45.9m after being found guilty of tax fraud for failure to report earnings from his contracts with Santos, Barcelona and Nike, according to Folha de Sao Paulo.

According to the court documents, Neymar made use of his businesses (Neymar Sport e Marketing, N & N Consultoria, N & N Administracao de Bens) to avoid paying €56.4m between 2012 and 2014.

The court claims that false contracts were created to avoid paying the full amount of taxes. The court last year froze assets related to Neymar valued at about 189 million Brazilian reals (€42m) due to the allegations of tax evasion.

“We studied the information regarding the tax case in question, Neymar, the three businesses and his business partners [parents of the player] and we found that there were fraudulent business practices,” wrote Develly Claudia Montez, who performed the audit for the court.

Neymar, who can appeal, is also under investigation in a Spanish court over his transfer from Santos to Barcelona in 2013.

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