The public prosecutor’s office is demanding up to two years in prison for football star Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain in the fraud process. The Brazilian is now testifying in court that he merely signed what his father presented to him and is not aware of any guilt.
Brazilian soccer star Neymar, accused of corruption and fraud, has denied any intentional wrongdoing in court. He only “signed the documents” that he received from his father. He “always led the contract negotiations” and was “always responsible for it”. “I sign what he tells me,” said the 30-year-old from Paris St. Germain.
Neymar also claims that he cannot remember whether he took part in the negotiations when he moved from his hometown club FC Santos to FC Barcelona in 2013. The process opened in Barcelona on Monday is about irregularities in this transfer. The public prosecutor, who is demanding a two-year prison sentence and a fine of ten million euros for the striker, assumes that the deal involved significantly more money than Barcelona claims. The accusation is that the club made sure that it had to pay less money to the company DIS, which at the time owned 40 percent of the marketing rights to Neymar and received a percentage of the transfer fee in the event of a transfer.
Barcelona indicated that DIS received €6.8m and the transfer was worth €57.1m in total. However, the public prosecutor’s office assumes at least 83 million euros, which would mean that the sum to which DIS would be entitled would be significantly higher. The Brazilian company is demanding 35 million euros in the process, Neymar’s lawyers reject this as unfounded and assert the innocence of the Brazilian, who wants to lead the Seleção to the sixth title as captain at the World Cup in Qatar (November 20 to December 18). .
As reported by the AFP news agency, Neymar was the third witness to testify after an FC Barcelona official and Real Madrid President Florentino Perez. His testimony was actually scheduled for October 21st or 28th. After he was released from the court after a good two hours on Monday, his interrogation was brought forward to Tuesday due to scheduling conflicts with his club’s football games. In addition to the soccer star, his parents, former Barca presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu and six other people have also been charged.
