Shakira Reaches Deal to Avoid $15 Million Tax Fraud Trial in Spain 

Colombian singer Shakira (C) leaves Barcelona Provincial Court after attending procedures on the first day of her trial for allegedly defrauding Spanish tax officials of 14.5 million euro in taxes between 2012 and 2014, in Barcelona city, Catalonia region, north-eastern Spain, 20 November 2023. Woman (L) is not identified. (EPA)
Colombian singer Shakira (C) leaves Barcelona Provincial Court after attending procedures on the first day of her trial for allegedly defrauding Spanish tax officials of 14.5 million euro in taxes between 2012 and 2014, in Barcelona city, Catalonia region, north-eastern Spain, 20 November 2023. Woman (L) is not identified. (EPA)
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Shakira Reaches Deal to Avoid $15 Million Tax Fraud Trial in Spain 

Colombian singer Shakira (C) leaves Barcelona Provincial Court after attending procedures on the first day of her trial for allegedly defrauding Spanish tax officials of 14.5 million euro in taxes between 2012 and 2014, in Barcelona city, Catalonia region, north-eastern Spain, 20 November 2023. Woman (L) is not identified. (EPA)
Colombian singer Shakira (C) leaves Barcelona Provincial Court after attending procedures on the first day of her trial for allegedly defrauding Spanish tax officials of 14.5 million euro in taxes between 2012 and 2014, in Barcelona city, Catalonia region, north-eastern Spain, 20 November 2023. Woman (L) is not identified. (EPA)

Colombian pop star Shakira on Monday reached a settlement with prosecutors to avoid a trial in Barcelona over charges she failed to pay 14.5 million euros ($15.7 million) in Spanish income tax between 2012 and 2014.

As part of the deal, she accepted the charges and a fine of 50% of the amount owed, more than 7.3 million euros.

She also accepted another fine of 438,000 euros to avoid a three-year prison sentence, the judge said during the trial's first hearing.

"Do you recognize the facts and conform with the new penalties that have been requested?" asked Judge Jose Manuel del Amo Sanchez. "Yes," Shakira responded.

Wearing a pink suit, matched with a pink handbag and sunglasses, she arrived minutes before 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) accompanied by her lawyers, amid a media frenzy. On Thursday night Shakira won two Latin Grammy awards in Seville.

Previously, the "Hips Don't Lie" singer, who also has a second tax fraud investigation pending with Spanish authorities, had vowed to fight what she called false accusations.

The prosecutor's office was seeking an up to eight-year prison term and to claim back the taxes it says she owes.

It alleged that Shakira spent more than half of each of the years in question in Spain and was therefore ordinarily resident in the country. It also said that a Barcelona property she bought in May 2012 served as a family home.

Shakira, 46, lived with former Barcelona and Spain soccer star Gerard Pique for 11 years and the couple have two children. The singer, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, moved to Miami after their separation.

Spanish authorities have pursued other major celebrities over tax evasion including soccer players such as Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazilian-Spanish player Diego Costa. All settled and paid large fines.

Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso refused to settle and eventually won a trial against the tax agency. Spain's Supreme Court last month upheld his acquittal.



Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.