The judicial machine is set in motion and is already investigating Barça, Rosell, Bartomeu and two former club executives for the Negreira case. The reinforcement judge of the trial court 1 of Barcelona, ??Silvia López Mejía, has accepted the complaint filed by the referee Xavier Estrada Fernández and the complaint by the Prosecutor for the payments made to the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira.
In an order issued yesterday, he sees indications that the facts embodied in both complaints could constitute a continuing crime of corruption between individuals in the sports field, a continuing crime of unfair administration and a continuing crime of documentary falsification. The Prosecutor’s investigation was interrupted after Estrada Fernández filed the complaint with which from that moment the Prosecutor’s Office had to stop investigating to the detriment of the judge.
Taking this situation into account, the magistrate asks to continue with the line of investigation opened before Estrada’s complaint with the aim of finding out “the reason or work” for which the payments made by Barça to José María’s companies were made Enríquez Negreira in the period between 2011 and 2014 since it did not seem that the former referee saw his assets increase. To continue with the investigation, the judge orders that it change hands. If until now it was carried out by the National Police, the judge transferred the case to the Civil Guard to carry out “the investigative procedures that are necessary to ascertain the facts.”
Once the investigation is complete, those investigated will be summoned to testify: Sandro Rosell, Josep María Bartomeu, Òscar Grau, Albert Soler, Enríquez Negreira and a representative of the club. The judge also leaves the door open to impute more exalted Barça officials who may have been related to the events and such as the General Director, Executive Director, financial director, and the head of the club’s economic area between 2011 and 2014. In addition, the judge accepts the appearance of the Professional Soccer League as a private accusation.
For the moment, the judge rules out charging Negreira’s son, Javier Enríquez, since he considers that the direction and management of the DASNIL company was exercised exclusively by his father and in his statement before the Treasury he assured that “he never revealed to his son the confidential agreement that was with Barça” and after the tax inspectorate verified that he received DASNIL payrolls despite the fact that he was listed as manager. The judge considers him a mere figurehead. In the order, the judge points out that the Tax Agency opened an inspection in 2019 that concluded that the invoices drawn by the companies of Negreria NILSAD and DASNIL “did not correspond to the provision of services” and pointed out that “there was a lack of evidence” to prove that the activity developed.
