In a trial held this Friday, April 17, at the Provincial Court of Madrid, television collaborator Kiko Matamoros (Madrid, 69 years old) confessed that he hid assets, both monetary income and a property, from the Tax Agency to prevent the Tax Authority from executing seizures due to his unpaid taxes. At the same court session, his ex-wife María José Giaever, known in the media as Makoke (Málaga, 56 years old), admitted that she cooperated with this concealment by allowing Matamoros to put a house in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) in her name, which they both bought in 2011, as well as the account linked to the mortgage; this, despite the fact that the income to fund it came from her then husband.
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Following the confession of these facts, the prosecutor reduced her sentence request from five and a half years to two years in prison for Kiko Matamoros and from four to one year and nine months for Makoke, which implies they will not be imprisoned. It was considered that both committed a crime of asset concealment with the mitigating circumstances of confession and undue delays in the procedure, for which they are also requested to jointly compensate the Tax Agency for just over 400,000 euros.
For his part, the State attorney, representing the Tax Agency, requested three and a half years in prison for Kiko Matamoros and one year and nine months for Makoke. The defense lawyers of both defendants adhered to the final request of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Kiko Matamoros’s lawyer said that the Tax Agency finally managed to seize almost 800,000 euros from his client, while Makoke’s lawyer recalled that she has already deposited 60,000 euros for possible civil liability.
During his testimony, Kiko Matamoros confessed that since 2009 he used companies created by him to formally empty his assets and create an appearance of no income, thus avoiding a potential enforcement action by the Tax Agency after not paying the taxes he owed. He added that he channeled his media appearances and his work as a representative of third parties, specifically Makoke, through the companies Salto Mortal and Silla del Ring, emptying the accounts of these companies for his personal benefit, and also hid from the Tax Agency income he earned from his professional salaries.
The collaborator of successful TV programs such as Sálvame stated that in 2011 he acquired a house in Pozuelo de Alarcón for 1,315,750 euros, where they established their habitual residence. He also said that, to avoid action from the Tax Agency against him, they put the ownership of the property in Makoke’s name.
The prosecutor recalled that the Tax Agency issued a resolution in 2017 requiring Kiko Matamoros to identify his assets due to his debt to the Tax Agency, which then amounted to 1,240,425 euros. He admitted that he was notified of the resolution but did not comply with the request, which, according to the prosecutor, caused “the failure of any seizure attempt” by the Tax Agency.
Makoke stated that she did not find out until 2018 that Kiko Matamoros was not declaring to the Tax Agency and that she allowed him to put the house in Pozuelo de Alarcón in her name so that it would not be seized from her then husband. She said she also agreed to appear as the holder of an account into which Kiko Matamoros deposited the money to pay the mortgage.
Upon leaving the Court, Matamoros announced that once there is a sentence, he will initiate a civil procedure in favor of his interests: “The fight for my rights,” he said, and recalled that relatives of Makoke still live in the house in Pozuelo. She, who cried at times during the trial, limited herself to saying that it was “very unpleasant” to be in the dock and about Kiko Matamoros commented that he did not greet her and did not even look at her.
The ex-couple had already coincided at the Provincial Court of Madrid on March 18, at the start of the trial, eight years after making their separation public after 20 years of relationship. In that session, he showed willingness to assume his responsibility and she presented a new expert report that caused the process to be postponed. A week earlier, it was known that the Prosecutor’s Office requested five years and six months in prison for Matamoros, whom it considered the mastermind of the operation, and four years for his ex-wife as a necessary accomplice.
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