MADRID - Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo denied on Tuesday ever hiding income from tax authorities or committing tax fraud in Spain, after prosecutors filed a lawsuit accusing him of defrauding the government of 14.7 million euros ($16.5 million).

The prosecutor's office said the Real Madrid forward had knowingly used a business structure created in 2010 to hide his image-rights income in Spain between 2011 and 2014.

This involved a "voluntary" failure to comply with his tax obligations in Spain, the statement from the office's economic-crimes section said.