The singer - made famous in Europe by her record-breaking hit “Hips Don’t Lie” - allegedly used 14 shell companies to hide income while a Spanish resident.

Files were charged in Barcelona, where Shakira currently lives with FC Barcelona star Gerard Piqué, the FT reports.

According to prosecutors, she used shell companies in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Malta, Luxembourg, and Panama “with the sole objective of hiding the income and assets of the defendant from the Treasury”.

The authorities believe Shakira falsely claimed “on many occasions” that her tax residence was in the Bahamas when she hadn’t spent any time there between 2012 and 2014.