Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has been sentenced to two years in prison for fraud. But the 1995 Wimbledon doubles champion won’t go to jail, as a Barcelona court suspended the sentence with Sanchez Vicario agreeing to repay £5.7 million (€6.6 million) in debts.
Sanchez Vicario and ex-husband Josep Santacana faced a trial last September after being accused of hiding assets to avoid repaying a debt to the Bank of Luxembourg. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Sanchez Vicario has faced multiple court proceedings related to afraid and tax evasion charges, dating back to 2009.
In the ruling, the head of the criminal court number 25 of Barcelona considers that it was “fully proven” that Sanchez Vicario, 52, “had and at all times had sufficient assets to cover the debt”. Santacana has also been sentenced to three years and three months in prison.
The judge concluded that Santacana led the plan to avoid paying the debt. The businessman maintained his innocence throughout the trial. Along with Sanchez Vicario, whom he divorced in 2019, the pair must repay £5.7m – the total of their unpaid debt plus interest.
During the trial, the Spanish tennis star said she trusted her then-husband with her assets. “I did what he told me to do, because I am a tennis player, I have no knowledge of assets or companies or anything. I trusted my husband,” she told the court.
According to El Pais, the court believed that it was “absolutely credible” that Sanchez Vicario “had no knowledge of asset management, nor probably any interest, and that he had always transferred the management of her assets to third parties.”
However, she was not acquitted as the court found that she “had full knowledge of what was being done with her assets and was enjoying it.”
