Waldemar Kita, owner and president of FC Nantes, as well as his son Franck, deputy general manager of the club, spent several hours in police custody on Wednesday June 28. According to the daily Presse Océan, this double summons falls within the framework of the judicial investigation opened in Rennes for “illegal exercise of a sports agent activity (…), forgery and use of forgery, abuse of corporate assets, money laundering aggravated tax evasion and organized gang money laundering”.
Waldemar Kita was released at the end of the day on Wednesday, but his son spent the night in police custody. This measure was taken the day after a similar action against two FC Nantes players’ agents as part of the same investigation. On Tuesday, the Rennes prosecutor had confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the “double placement in police custody [of the two agents] within the framework of the rogatory commission of the investigating magistrate”, without further details.
Commissions paid during transfers
These summons actually came the day after the placement in police custody of the intermediary Bakari Sanogo and Joaquim Batica, agent of the French Football Federation (FFF) of certain Nantes players. A judicial investigation had been opened on June 29, 2022 on the counts of “illegal exercise of a sports agent activity by a national of a Member State or party to the agreement on the European economic area”, “false and use of forgery”, “misuse of corporate assets”, “laundering of aggravated tax evasion” and “laundering in an organized gang”.
On May 10, 2022, three days after Nantes’ coronation in the Coupe de France, three club officials had already been placed in police custody for several hours as part of an investigation into player transfers.
According to several media, the investigators were then interested in commissions paid to Bakari Sanogo during several transfers. As part of this investigation, searches had previously been carried out in December 2020 at the club’s headquarters, at the Jonelière training center. Agent of the international Moussa Sissoko, Bakari Sanogo is an intermediary close to Waldemar Kita, who has regularly called on his services in his recruitments.