Barcelona’s previous board showed “very serious criminal behaviour”, a lawyer appointed by the club said on Tuesday in the presentation of its ‘forensic report’ into Barca’s financial management under Josep Maria Bartomeu.
When Bartomeu’s successor Joan Laporta took over he was forced to allow iconic star Lionel Messi to go on a free transfer, essentially because the club’s finances meant he could no longer pay his salary. .
Laporta said the club found “payment without reason, payment with false reason or disproportionate payment”.
Laporta said that “it cannot be ruled out that there was an unfair reward for those responsible for these payments”.
The report’s findings prompted the club to file a complaint last week to the prosecutor’s office in Barcelona, which on Friday launched an investigation into “economic offences”, a source told AFP.
The Barcelona report, carried out by the financial investigation company, Kroll, was launched after the club’s general director, Ferran Reverter, announced the results of an internal audit in October.
Reverter said the club was “technically bankrupt” when Laporta took over as chairman in March 2021, with audits revealing club debt totaling 1.35 billion euros ($1.52 billion).
The report was presented Tuesday morning in offices outside the Camp Nou by Eduard Romeu, financial vice president of Laporta, Barcelona, and Jaime Campaner, the corporate lawyer contracted to work on the investigation.
Campaner said: “It’s not about pointing fingers or describing the management of the previous board as better or worse, it’s not.
“It’s about transferring information to the authorities who investigate crimes and put a stop to this kind of behavior, which is very serious criminal behavior.”
Campaneer continued: “If I had to define it in one word, it would be: betrayal. Because it is the money of the members of FC Barcelona. That money cannot be misused or given as if that it was yours.”
‘false accounting’
Campaner listed several alleged irregularities found in the report, including seven million euros being paid to lawyers for “an alleged signing of a player”, payments to agents that increased by five to 33 percent. and 15 million euros were paid. For a club to take the first denial on young players, which Campaneer said “had no basis in reality”.
“The legal term for this is mis-accounting,” concluded Campaner.
Bartomeu has defended his time as president, blaming the damage on the crisis caused by the pandemic while dismissing figures presented by the current board.
“Our management was serious and responsible,” Bartomeu said in an interview with Barcelona newspaper Mundo Deportivo in October.
Laporta said on Tuesday that he was still “open to talks” with Bartomeu. He said the club’s salary bill under the current board has been reduced by 159 million euros.
Barcelona failed to make an exit for Ousmane Dembele in the January transfer window, which closed on Monday night, with Dembele now able to leave for free when his contract expires in the summer.
Ferran Torres joined Manchester City for €55m at the start of the month, while Laporta said Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s free transfer signing from Arsenal should be completed this week.
Bartomeu appeared in court in March and was released from pending corruption charges after police raided five locations around Barcelona, including the Camp Nou offices.
More than 200,000 Barcelona members had signed a petition calling for Bartomeu’s removal from the presidency, but Bartomeu resigned in October 2020 before a no-confidence motion could take place.
He publicly fell out with Lionel Messi, who moved last summer and joined Paris Saint-Germain when the club could not afford to extend his contract.
The team suffered a dramatic fall on the pitch and is still recovering. Barca are fifth in La Liga and have failed to qualify for the last 16 of this season’s Champions League.
Bartomeu also oversaw a number of political controversies, including the ‘Barcagate’ scandal, in which a company was allegedly hired to discredit the board’s opponents on social media, among those targeted include Messi, Gerard Pique and current coach Xavi Hernandez.
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