The Mossos d’Esquadra appeared at the offices of FC Barcelona on December 7 in search of documentation on the alleged inflated signings and commissions to intermediaries during Josep Maria Bartomeu’s time. According to ‘el Periódico’, Catalan police officers went to the club’s headquarters by order of the 16th investigative court of Barcelona, ??which has opened an investigation against the former Barça president after detecting irregularities in the payment of commissions for some signings. which could amount to 30 million euros. The case arises from the famous forensic that Joan Laporta presented to the media in February 2022 and which pointed to the commission of three alleged crimes by the previous Board of Directors: unfair administration, misappropriation and accounting falsehood. The Mossos requested invoices and contracts from the previous stage, as confirmed by judicial sources.
Laporta announced that he made the forensics available to the Prosecutor’s Office, which has decided to file a complaint against Bartomeu – the third he has accumulated – before Court 16 of Barcelona, ??which has accepted it and declared it secret. The audit detected payments without cause, with false cause and disproportionate payments, some including commissions of 33%. For example, in the signing of the Brazilian Malcom, which barely lasted one season for the club, 10 million commissions were paid in a contract signed after the signing was signed or a “luxury” contract was also signed for scout André Cury despite because his reports were not included in the club.
The forensic, presented to the Prosecutor’s Office, also detected allegedly irregular payments to a law firm. 1.7 million were paid for a conformity agreement, then half a million euros for a contract and another 7 million for the intermediation of a transfer. Bartomeu also paid 15 million euros to Atlético de Madrid, simulating a trial contract for young players when in reality it was so that the mattress club would not report Barça to the Federation for having negotiated with Griezman when he still had a contract with Atlético. In addition, the previous Board of Directors also paid compensation of 1.5 million euros to the Laietà esportiu club so that it would not present allegations in the Espai Barça plan.
And finally, the audit also revealed alleged irregularities in the exchange of players as economic engineering such as the exchanges with Juventus between Pjanic and Arthur and with Valencia between Neto and Cillesen. “Operations were simulated to hide the situation from the partner. There was a deliberate distortion with the exchange of players: the market prices of the players in exchange were greatly inflated to gain financial muscle. But it was an illusion,” Laporta noted then.
This is the third legal case opened against Josep Maria Bartomeu. The former president is being investigated for disloyal administration in the Barçagate case that seeks to clarify the alleged diversion of club funds through a company that provided monitoring services on the club’s social networks; and he is also accused in the Negreira case in which it is investigated whether Barça paid 17 million euros to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, in exchange for referee favors. This year, the former president was acquitted along with Sandro Rosell of the case opened against both of them for the signing of Neymar.
