Shakira's tax fraud case is officially headed to trial.
A Spanish judge has approved a trial for the "Hips Don't Lie" singer on charges of tax fraud, according to The Associated Press.
Spanish prosecutors have claimed Shakira failed to pay about $14 million in taxes from 2012 through 2014, during which time she claimed Bahamas as her primary residence. Prosecutors, though, allege she spent over half her time in Spain.
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She has denied the allegations of tax evasion, recently telling Elle, "I've paid everything they claimed I owed." She maintained that during this time, while she was dating Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué, she "spent more than 240 days outside of Spain, so there was no way I qualified as a resident."
Shakira also accused Spanish prosecutors of making use of a "salacious press campaign to try to sway people" and pushing "fictional claims" against her without evidence.
"The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate," she told Elle. "…They knew I wasn't in Spain the required time, that Spain wasn't my place of work or my source of income, but they still came after me, with their eyes on the prize."
Prosecutors in Spain are seeking an eight-year prison sentence for Shakira should she be found guilty. She rejected an offer to settle the case in July, and she told Elle she did so because "I have to fight for what I believe." The trial doesn't yet have a start date.
