Story By: Sara Zhivkova, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
A popular YouTuber has been sentenced to eight months in prison for tax evasion in the first case of its kind in Italy.
YouTube star Stefano Lepri, 25, known by his subscribers as ‘St3pny’, was sentenced to eight months in prison for tax evasion of EUR 76,000 by a court in the Italian city of Florence.
He was convicted of evading VAT in 2017 for a reported income of EUR 334,000.
Lepri gained fame for his gamer videos and he has 4.3 million followers on YouTube and 2.5 million followers on Instagram.
The YouTuber claimed he was innocent, saying: “I’ve always paid my taxes in good faith otherwise I would be in the Caymans in a Ferrari.”
Prosecutor Christine Von Borries asked for a sentence of one year and four months.
The defence asked for acquittal because Lepri had paid the due amount to the tax authorities in recent months.
Lepri was convicted of tax evasion in 2017, but the police said he failed to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in VAT between 2013 and 2018 as well.
He was the first YouTuber convicted of tax evasion in Italy, according to reports.
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