The judge blocks the account where a Piqué company collects the millionaire commissions for the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia | Soccer | Sports
The investigation into the alleged financial irregularities in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) during the presidency of Luis Rubiales once again puts the focus on one of the companies of former FC Barcelona and Spanish team player Gerard Piqué. The head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction 4 of Majadahonda, Delia Rodrigo, who is investigating Operation Brodie, has issued an order in which she orders, at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the blocking of a bank account in Spain of the company Kosmos . Football SL, of which Piqué is founder and president, as reported by Cadena Ser and confirmed by EL PAÍS in legal sources. The judge explains in her resolution, to which this newspaper has had access, that this measure seeks to prevent the company from using the commission of three million euros that it receives each year from the company SELA Company Sport as ” “success bonus” for its mediation in the contract to hold the Spanish Soccer Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, under suspicion of alleged irregularities. The judge emphasizes that the measure does not prevent SELA Company Sport from continuing to receive future inflows of money from this agreement. The judge’s decision is not yet final and can be appealed.
The dispute of the matches in Saudi Arabia of the Spanish Super Cup ――which pits the two finalists of the Copa del Rey against the two first classified teams of the League each year― was reflected in an agreement for 264 million euros signed in 2019 between the then president of the RFEF and SELA Company Sport. The contract included an addendum by which the latter agreed to pay an annual amount to Piqué’s company for its mediation that amounted to three million euros if the participating teams included Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. The judge recalls in her order, dated this Monday, that “the illegality of the aforementioned contract” is being investigated, which is why she considers it “necessary and essential” to agree to block the current account of Piqué’s company “in order to guarantee the eventual civil responsibilities arising from this procedure” that could have been incurred in this company. The judicial resolution emphasizes that Kosmos Football is already included in the case as being investigated for the crimes of business corruption, unfair administration and money laundering, and that similar precautionary measures have been adopted with respect to other defendants, including Rubiales. Until now, there is no evidence that the former Blaugrana player is being investigated in the case.
It is not the first time that the judge in the Brodie case has focused on Piqué’s companies. Previously, it had already sent two rogatory commissions (request for judicial assistance) to the Andorran authorities to collect information on possible bank accounts opened in this country in the name of the former Barcelona footballer and nine companies linked to him. With this measure, the judge intended to know if Piqué gave, through them, “financial gifts” to Rubiales or other directors of this organization “as a consequence of the negotiation for the celebration of the Spanish Football Super Cup” in Saudi Arabia. In the second of these rogatory commissions, issued on September 28, the judge recalled that the case is investigating “the possible criminal illegality of the contracts signed by the RFEF with the purpose of holding the football Super Cup competition in Arabia.” Saudi.” To do this, the judge considered “it is essential to know and be able to carry out complete traceability of the funds received by the company Kosmos Football SL from SELA (the Saudi company that was in charge of organizing the competition).”
To justify the request, the magistrate highlighted that the investigations had revealed “a large flow of money between the accounts of Kosmos, as well as that of Gerard Piqué and his entourage”, and that 90% of the outflow of funds from the account he received SELA payments were destined for accounts belonging to the former player’s business group or linked to it. The judge intends, therefore, to “investigate these current accounts in detail and analyze all money movements”, especially after verifying that both Piqué and his main company “have important economic interests in the Principality of Andorra”, including a team of football, FC Andorra, which plays in the Spanish Second Division.
The judge initially focused on several accounts. One, whose owner is precisely this club, received 3.4 million euros from Kosmos between June 2019 and March 2022. From a second, Piqué ordered to send 12 million euros to the Kerad Kolding company, which includes his conglomerate of companies. For all these reasons, it requested information on this last account, opened at Mora Banc, “from 2019 to the present with the greatest possible level of detail”, including who its owners, co-owners and people authorized to operate with it are. She also asked to locate Piqué’s account from which he sent two million euros to Spain in February 2021, as well as any other deposit or financial product in which the former soccer player or nine of his companies appear as the owner. The request included the request that the Andorran authorities respond “within the shortest possible time.” It is not clear whether they have already sent the requested information.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_