According to the documentation of the case, the director of Barcelona Josep Contreras acted as a display for funds to the arbitrator. He died in December 2022 The second recipient of the funds, the referee José María Enríquez Negreira, assured the Prosecutor’s Office that he suffered from a kind of dementia in order to not give an announcement The case has been left within the palms of the Barcelona Civil Guard, who will attempt to discover out the cash vacation spot
When the Catalan Prosecutor’s Office summoned the arbitrator José María Enríquez Negreira to testify, he suspected that he had emptied a part of his accounts with bearer checks cashed over-the-counter by trusted individuals akin to his secretary. However, the prosecutor accountable for the case didn’t acquire a solution, for the reason that man who knew 100% of the vacation spot of that cash, the recipient of thousands and thousands in quantities from FC Barcelona whereas he was quantity two within the arbitration physique, alleged that he had a psychological sickness that affected his recollections and due to this fact made him incapable of giving an announcement.
As the newspaper El Español superior, Negreira’s protection alleged a starting of Alzheimer’s in order that his defendant wouldn’t need to reply the questions of that interrogation. Nor was it essential, since as being investigated he had the precise to refuse to testify with out the necessity to give additional explanations. However, there’s a distinction. If the Investigating Court number one of Barcelona lastly considers that Negreira is prevented from giving an announcement as a result of he isn’t in a position to discern his actions, he may also be prevented from submitting to punishment, if he’s convicted. Thus, the pronouncement of his attorneys permits us to intuit from that time what will likely be one in all his major traces of protection.
Now, the case has gone to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which will likely be accountable for figuring out if Barça tried to purchase the favor of some referees with these funds, along with that of Negreira himself. That is why it’s so vital to know the vacation spot of the funds that got here out of your money accounts. More so when, based on El Confidencial, the Treasury stories integrated into the case clarify that the same old day-to-day funds of the collegiate have been paid with their bank cards. What did he want that cash for then?
In quick, there may be one other of the primary protagonists of this plot who won’t present his model of the cash path both: the supervisor of Barça Josep Contreras, a member of the board of Josep Maria Bartomeu, Joan Gaspar or Josep Lluis Núñez and who died in December of 2022. The hint of the cash paid by Barça additionally goes by way of a number of corporations allegedly managed by Contreras. According to the grievance filed by the Prosecutor’s Office, the previous supervisor of the membership acted as a display for the funds of the Blaugrana group to the businesses managed by Negreira in trade for a fee. A cash that got here to be round 150,000 euros. However, the demise of the suspect extinguishes each his legal accountability and his skill to offer explanations in regards to the case.
Thus, based on the grievance by the Prosecutor’s Office, there could be two sides in an alleged crime of corruption between people: on the one hand, FC Barcelona as payer, and on the opposite, Negreira and Contreras as recipients of funds. However, evidently this second a part of the investigation is extra opaque. Among the primary witnesses may also be the son of quantity two of the arbitrators, whom the Prosecutor’s Office has not noted of his grievance, contemplating that it’s not confirmed at first that he had information of the origin of the funds.
It must be remembered in any case that the prosecution doesn’t must show the ultimate vacation spot of the funds to file an accusation for this alleged crime that involves trial, if not the precise intention of these funds. That is to say; Spanish laws stipulates that the crime of corruption between people, within the part that particularly offers with alleged corruption in sport, solely requires a proposal or intention to intrude in choices by way of cash. That is why it’s so vital to know the service that quantity two of the referees provided to the Barcelona group and if these supposed referee stories have been inside the market value.
The underlying downside for Barcelona’s protection comes from afar, since earlier than the Treasury the membership already acknowledged these invoices as improper in its tax investigation, for which it paid a penalty along with elevating its tax quota. For this purpose now, it’s troublesome that on this new process, of a legal nature, the managers investigated can conceal behind the truth that the providers offered by Negreira have been inside the provisions of the invoices.