The tax agency suspects that the former vice president of the Referees Technical Committee (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira used part of the more than seven million euros he received from FC Barcelona to buy third parties, others implicated in the plot not yet identified, according to assures The Confidential. It also leaves the door open for the former vice president of the CTA to use the money to pay the same club managers who authorized the payments, and thus ensure that the operation was still running.
These suspicions arise from the fact that the money trail has not been found, but withdrawals of up to 550,000 euros between 2016 and 2019 have been proven. The Treasury considered that Negreira would have invested it in buying properties, but that route has finally been ruled out. Neither the former arbitrator nor his son experienced an increase in assets or increased the assets of the mercantile companies they controlled. They did not acquire real estate or participate in other operations in which they could have spent that cash.
The Treasury inspectors have focused on these continuous cash withdrawals. Negreira regularly used a visa card to pay for goods and services with which he covered his daily needs. She came to spend more than 150,000 euros in a single year with that card. In addition, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) covered all their accommodation, travel and food expenses. In the opinion of the Treasury, Negreira did not require additional amounts in cash to enjoy a comfortable life.
One of the clearest examples, according to El Confidencial, is offered by the 2016 financial year, with Josep Maria Bartomeu in the presidency of FC Barcelona. That year, the club paid Negreira’s company, DASNIL 95 SL, 640,970 euros. During those 12 months, the former vice president of the CTA made purchases with his visa for an amount of more than 130,000 euros. However, in parallel, in that same period he withdrew 170,000 euros in bills from his accounts. In 2017 he withdrew even more liquid money from the bank: about 210,000 euros, an average of 18,000 euros per month. The goal is to know where that money went.
