Maradona to file complaint against ex-wife

Buenos Aires, July 18 (IANS/EFE) Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona is filing a complaint against ex-wife Claudia Villafane over an 80-million peso (some $8.7 million) shortfall in his accounts.

The 54-year-old Maradona confirmed in remarks to Jorge Rial, a TV host with Argentina's America channel, that he is filing a tax-evasion complaint with the internal revenue service against Villafane, his wife for 13 years and the mother of two of his daughters.

Rial says Maradona told him in a telephone conversation that he could not believe that the "woman I've known since I was 15 did this to me".

The complaint stems from an audit of his accounts and those of his close relatives that the ex-soccer great commissioned and which showed the disappearance of some 80 million pesos.

The investigation ordered by Maradona, according to Argentine news channel Todo Noticias, raised suspicions about Villafane, whose assets were found to include three apartments in Miami valued at nearly $2 million, properties acquired in the US as a single women even though she was married at the time and deposits equivalent to $3 million in a Uruguayan bank account.

The audit also turned up dubious dentist bills.

"The evidence is conclusive, Claudia's (actions) are indefensible," Maradona's attorney Matias Morla told local media.

--IANS/EFE

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