LThe Guardia di Finanza is executing a seizure order against Sampdoria president Massimo Ferrero. According to reports, the owner of the Sampdoria team is involved in an investigation by the Special Unit of the Currency Police that also involves other people. The crimes alleged, to varying degrees, are misappropriation, fraud, issuing and use of false invoices, self-laundering and use of money, goods or utilities of illicit origin.
The operation was called “Fuori gioco”. The context of the investigation starts from the in-depth analysis of anomalous financial transactions carried out between the companies of the “Ferrero Group”. The investigations, conducted by the military of the Special Currency Police Unit, led to the identification of some hypotheses of diversion from the football club's coffers for an amount of approximately 1,2 million euros, part of the consideration obtained from the sale in the summer of 2015 of the footballer Pedro Obiang to West Ham, through the use of invoices for non-existent transactions issued by another company attributable to Ferrero, although formally administered by another person. Sums of money that then appear to have been partly reinvested to settle debt situations of other companies in the group and to finance two other companies attributable to Ferrero for the production of a film to be distributed in the cinema circuit. The investigations also revealed fake labor disputes before the Territorial Labor Directorate of Rome, through which, simulating subordinate employment relationships with 5 companies of the group, 5 separate settlement agreements were concluded, with the undue collection of 500 thousand euros (100 thousand euros for each company). The subsequent reconstruction of the financial flows made it possible to ascertain that a good part of these sums had been used for the purchase of a prestigious property in Florence.
Article published on November 28, 2018 - 08:48
