While waiting to formalize the complaint in the next few hours, details continue to appear about the complaint that the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office will present in the courts for the ‘Negreira case’. The text is directed against the former president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), José María Enríquez Negreira, against the former president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, as well as against two of its directors, Óscar Grau and Albert Soler, in addition to the club as a person legal. Specifically, the Public Ministry considers that the defendants committed a continuous crime of corruption in business, in the form of sports fraud, and another of unfair administration, which would go against the former managers of the Barça entity.
As EL MUNDO has learned, the complaint calls for all the presidents of Barcelona from 2001 to 2018 to testify as witnesses, which would include the current one, Joan Laporta, who would be affected by the case by virtue of his first term (2003-2010). ). Judicial sources do not rule out that during the investigation of the procedure it is considered that these former leaders, among whom is also Sandro Rosell, may end up being investigated, since in continued crimes the statute of limitations goes from five to ten years, although their validity must first be verified. responsibility for these payments to the former arbitrator. In the case of Laporta, as the current president, if his situation were to change from witness to being investigated for some reason, it would leave him in an uncomfortable position.
The investigation focuses on the 1.4 million paid by Barça between 2016 and 2018 to Enríquez Negreira when he was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) through two of his companies, Dasnil 95 and Nilsad. Presumably fictitious invoices were issued to the Barça club for “technical video advice”, despite the fact that the Public Ministry considers that they would be for other concepts different from what was stipulated. The Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona awaits this complaint from the prosecutor to accumulate it to the complaint of the VAR referee Estrada Fernández. against Negreira and his son, despite the fact that it is not admitted for processing. Everything indicates that he will open an investigation with these two indictments.
Barça’s continued payments to the former referee began in 2001 and would reach almost seven million euros during the time he had responsibility within the arbitration establishment. However, the investigation focuses on the two years before Bartomeu suspended the payment of money to Enríquez Negreira and cut off the collaboration with him, which did not sit well with the former arbitration leader, who sent several threatening messages to Barça, such as advanced THE WORLD.
It has been almost a year since the Prosecutor’s Office investigated Enríquez Negreira after a complaint from the Tax Agency. In the inspection, millionaire payments from Barça were found: to Dasnil 95 SL 532,728.02 euros in 2016, 541,752 euros in 2017 and 318,200 euros in 2018, a date that coincides with his departure from the Committee. The former arbitrator assured that they were in exchange for verbal advice, so there were no documents on the alleged work that appeared on the invoices, to guarantee neutrality. However, he did not want to testify before the Police when he was summoned at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office.
It was done by former club managers who confirmed these payments. Bartomeu pointed out that the work of the former arbitration leader was done and that it consisted of counseling by going to the Barça facilities to give talks to the employees. The former Barça president denied irregularities, in addition to stating that he was unaware of the company that billed them.
In the coming days, the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona will open proceedings against the former referee and the former managers of Barça, as well as against the club, for these crimes. The investigation will be led by the reinforcing magistrate of the court, since Judge Joaquín Aguirre finalizes the pieces of the ‘Voloh case’. Last week the court received Estrada Fernández’s complaint against Negreira and his son, Javier Enríquez Romero, administrator of some companies, for corruption in business. At the moment, the Prosecutor’s Office only accuses his father.
Judicial sources have explained to this medium that the crime of corruption in business is committed simply by offering actions that promote sports disruption and payment for this reason, regardless of whether it is carried out or not. This will be the main workhorse of the accusation to try to prove that the former managers of Barça committed this alleged fraud. In addition, they point out that the fact that it is considered a continuing crime could cause the prescription to go from five to ten years from the reason for the complaint, for which reason Sandro Rosell could also be investigated, who is the one who ordered the payments to the former referee during his time at the helm of the club. These issues must be resolved in the judicial investigation.
The Penal Code establishes that the crime of corruption in business punishes the director, administrator, employee or collaborator of a company who, “by himself or through an intermediary, receives, requests or accepts an unjustified benefit or advantage” or “offer or promise to get it.” In its sports modality, article 286 bis establishes that the legal entity, such as a football club, can also be punished, as well as “athletes, referees or judges, with respect to those conducts whose purpose is to predetermine or alter deliberately and fraudulently the result of a test, meeting or sporting competition of special economic or sporting relevance”,
The sentences provided range from six months to four years in prison along with special disqualification and a fine. three times the value of the benefit or advantage obtained illegally. In addition, the Penal Code establishes that condemned legal entities could be fined and sanctioned, such as Barça in this case, not only disqualifying them from competing but, in extreme cases, ordering their dissolution.
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