Questões de Inglês - Sinônimos | Synonyms para Concurso

Why Is Spain Really Taking Lionel Messi to Tax Court?

By Jonathan Mahler Sep 27, 2013
So Spain has decided to haul Lionel Messi into court for tax evasion, which strikes me as completely insane on pretty much every level.
You may remember the story from a few months back: The greatest soccer player in the world and his father were accused of setting up
a bunch of shell companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on royalties and other licensing income.

Messi - who makes an estimated $41 million a year, about half from sponsors - reached a settlement with Spain’s tax authorities earlier
this summer, agreeing to pay the amount he apparently owed, plus interest. The matter was settled, or so it seemed. Messi could go
back to dazzling the world with his athleticism and creativity.
Only it turns out that Spain wasn’t quite done with Messi. His adopted country - Messi is Argentine but became a Spanish citizen in 2005
- is now considering pressing criminal charges against him.
Cracking down on tax-evading footballers has become something of a trend in Europe, where players and clubs have been known to
launder money through “image-rights companies” often set up in tax havens. When you need money - and Europe needs money - go to
the people who have it, or something like that. Over the summer, dozens of Italian soccer clubs were raided as part of an investigation
into a tax-fraud conspiracy. A number of English Premier League clubs were forced last year to pay millions of pounds in back taxes.
No one likes a tax cheat, and there’s little doubt that widespread tax fraud has helped eat away at the social safety net in Spain and
elsewhere, depriving schools, hospitals and other institutions of badly needed funds. But Europe is not going to find the answers to its
financial problems in the pockets of some professional soccer players and clubs.
Messi’s defense, delivered by his father, seems credible enough to me. “He is a footballer and that’s it,” Messi’s father Jorge said of his
soccer-prodigy son. “If there was an error, it was by our financial adviser. He created the company. My mistake was to have trusted the
adviser.” Even if Messi is legally responsible for the intricate tax dodge he is accused of having participated in, it’s pretty hard to believe
that he knew much about it.
More to the point, Lionel Messi is probably Spain’s most valuable global asset. What could possibly motivate the Spanish government to
want to tarnish his reputation, especially after he’s paid off his alleged debt? After four years of Great-Depression level unemployment,
have anxiety and despair curdled into vindictiveness?
Here’s another explanation: Maybe this whole case has less to do with money than it does with history. Maybe it’s no coincidence that
the target of the Spanish government’s weird wrath happens to play for FC Barcelona, which is, after all, "mes que un club." It's a symbol
of Catalan nationalism - and a bitter, longtime rival of Spain’s establishment team, Real Madrid.
Too conspiratorial? Prove it, Spain. Release Cristiano Ronaldo’s tax return.

(Adapted form http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/why-is-spain-really-taking-lionel-messi-to-tax-court-.html)

Read the text and answer questions 19), 20), 21), 22), 23) and 24).

Lawsuits claim Knoedler made huge profits on fakes

For more than a dozen years the Upper East Side gallery Knoedler & Company was “substantially dependent” on profits it made from selling a mysterious collection of artwork that is at the center of a federal forgery investigation, former clients of this former gallery have charged in court papers. The analysis is based on financial records turned over as part of a lawsuit against the gallery filed by Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, who in 2004 paid $8.3 million for a painting attributed to Mark Rothko that they now say is a worthless fake. The Rothko is one of approximately 40 works that Knoedler, which closed last year, obtained from Glafira Rosales, a littleknown dealer whose collection of works attributed to Modernist masters has no documented provenance and is the subject of an F.B.I. investigation. Between 1996 and 2008, the suit asserts, Knoedler earned approximately $60 million from works that Ms. Rosales provided on consignment or sold outright to the gallery and cleared $40 million in profits. In one year, 2002, for example, the complaint says the gallery’s entire profit — $5.6 million — was derived from the sale of Ms. Rosales’s works. “Knoedler’s viability as a business was substantially — and, in some years, almost entirely — dependent on sales from the Rosales Collection,” the De Soles claimed last month in an amended version of the suit they filed this year. While the forgery allegations are well known and have been the subject of three federal lawsuits against Knoedler, the recent filings expand the known number of Rosales artworks that were handled by the gallery, which was in business for 165 years, and assert that they played a pivotal role in the gallery’s success. After the F.B.I. issued subpoenas to the gallery in the fall of 2009, Michael Hammer, Knoedler’s owner, halted the sale of any Rosales works. Knoedler ended up losing money that year and in 2010, the court papers say. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/arts/design/knoe... 

The internet vigilantes: Anonymous hackers' group outs man, 32, 'who drove girl, 15, to suicide by spreading topless photos of her'

Anonymous has named a man it claims posted topless pictures of a 15-year-old girl online and harassed her so relentlessly that she killed herself.

Amanda Todd, from Vancouver, Canada, was found hanged in her home on October 10, just weeks after she uploaded a video to YouTube detailing her horrific treatment at the hands of cyber bullies.

When she was just 12, a man in an internet chat room convinced her to flash her breasts, and a year later, he plastered a picture of the incident across Facebook.
Now in a vigilante move, Anonymous, the world's largest hacking group, has named the man allegedly responsible for the picture.

The group claims that he is a 32-year-old from British Columbia, but MailOnline has chosen not to identify him for legal reasons

As Todd's supporters set up Facebook pages warning the man to 'sleep with one eye open', the move by Anonymous sparks concerns over its abilities to create a 'trial by internet' - bypassing the justice system and casting guilt.

In a video posted to YouTube by Anonymous, a figure claims the group lists his personal information, including his date of birth and address

It explains that his username appears on websites where he 'blackmailed' and gave advice to young girls. The same username is also tied to a website with a 'jailbait' photo gallery. '[He] is an abomination to our society, and will be punished,' the Anonymous figure says.

Referring to the possibility they might have the wrong man, they add: 'At the most this is the person who did this to Amanda Todd, and at the least it's another pedophile that enjoys taking advantage of children.'

Following Anonymous' announcement, the web moved swiftly, with groups calling for his death and warning him to 'sleep with one eye open' cropping up on Facebook.

CKNW reporters have unsuccessfully tried to speak with the man, and neighbours have described his home as 'a known party house on the weekend with lots of young women coming and going'.

But police attended the home on Monday after a neighbour, Chyne Simpson, said Anonymous named the wrong address. He said he felt threatened by internet users and asked them to stay away.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police refused to confirm Anonymous have the right man but a spokesperson said they were aware that someone had been named.

'We are aware of what's being posted online and certainly following up what we feel is important to follow up,' Sergeant Peter Thiessen told The Globe and Mail, adding: '[Vigilantes] run the risk of committing a criminal offence.'

Todd's family members also said they are not sure the Anonymous report is accurate and said police have tracked down a person living in the U.S. whom they believed was involved.

The claims come weeks after Amanda posted a nearly nine-minute YouTube video detailing her treatment on a stack of notecards held up to the camera.

Todd says that a year after she flashed her breasts, the man tracked her down and demanded he put on a show for him or he would expose her.

When she refused, he created a Facebook page with a list of her friends and used her naked chest as the profile photo. The picture quickly spread across the internet and among her classmates.

It led to relentless bullying online, she said, and she was diagnosed with depression and started drinking. In the video, posted September 7, she admitted that she had previously tried to kill herself twice and has been hospitalised.

After moving to a different city and school, another instance of bullying occurred after she started a romantic relationship with an older man who had a girlfriend. Once that relationship soured, she was confronted and beaten up by the man's girlfriend. She was hit in front of a crowd of screaming people who encouraged her to be left in a ditch.

Amanda does not speak in the video, and her face is not fully shown, but she confirmed her identity with the last notecard which says her name.

One of the final images is a jarring picture of her arm which had been cut repeatedly. Just under six weeks after posting the video, Todd could take the bullying no longer, and took her own life.
During a memorial for Todd on Monday, her friends said they have been aware of a man in his 30s 'stalking' their friend for years.

'There were multiple accounts with random names,' one friend told QMI Agency. 'There were Twitter accounts also used.' The Vancouver Sun reported that Amanda was a student in Grade 10 at the Coquitlam Basic Alternative Education school. The principal of the school confirmed her death and said that she had become connected with many since she transferred to the school in the middle of last year.

'It is a very sad case,' Paul McNaughton told the paper. 'I can tell you we feel we tried everything we could to help her when she came to us.'
Her death prompted a local politician to release a video of her own that pleads to put an end to bullying.
'I just heard about Amanda. I want to say to everyone who loved her, to all her family and friends, how sorry I am about her loss,' British Columbia premier Christy Clark said.
'No one deserves to be bullied. No one earns it. No one asks for it. It isn't a rite of passage. Bullying has to stop.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218532/Amanda-Todd-Anonymous-names-man-drove- teen-kill-spreading-nude-pictures.html