Reports coming out of Spain claim Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo paid $375,000 compensation to a woman who claims he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.
According to German magazine Der Spiegel, the settlement, which dates back to an alleged encounter in Las Vegas on July 13th, 2009, imposes a gag order on the woman ever discussing her payoff in public.
The magazine also stated that the six-page document settling the claim was read aloud to the claimant by Ronaldo’s longtime attorney Carlos Osório de Castro at a mediation session in Nevada on January 12th, 2010.
It is understood that the Portugal captain was addressed as “Mr D” and the unnamed woman, who agreed to drop all charges, as “Ms C”.
The Irish Times reports that De Castro signed the document on behalf of his client but declined to comment on the claims when contacted by Der Spiegel, stating that he “never commented on clients’ affairs” and said no inference should be made by his silence.
Meanwhile, a second German lawyer, Johannes Keiler, reportedly contacted Der Spiegel asking it to drop the report on the four-time player of the year.
“The accusations implied by your questions are to be rejected in the strongest possible terms,” he said, warning that his client would “act against every untrue claim and the injury of his personal rights”.
Ronaldo, 32, is no stranger to controversy as he’s presently mired in a €150 million tax evasion scandal in Spain while authorities in England questioned on suspicion of rape in 2015 after two women came forward with claims that he’d sexually assaulted them.
The charges of rape by Ms C were reportedly later dropped.
