[Sport] Josep Maria Bartomeu, arrested after the search of the FC Barcelona offices for the 'Barçagate' scandal

[SougarLord]

 

The Mossos d'Esquadra arrested Josep Maria Bartomeu, former president of Barcelona, at his home this morning for the 'Barçagate' scandal, a plot for which funds were allegedly diverted from a conglomerate of companies (NS Group) hired for network monitoring. Along with the former president, three of his main collaborators in the plot have also been arrested: Jaume Masferrer, who was his chief of staff, Òscar Grau, CEO of the club, and Román Gómez Ponti, head of legal services. All of them were taken to the Les Corts police station. It will be tomorrow when they go to court.

 

Agents from the Central Economic Crimes Area of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Mossos, as they did last July, appeared this Monday at the Camp Nou offices after nine in the morning where they carried out an exhaustive search seven hours long. They also appeared at the private homes of Bartomeu and Masferrer, in addition to the headquarters of the companies I3 Ventures, NSG Social Science and Telampartnetr. The police are investigating crimes of corruption in business, and also alleged falsehoods in the audit commissioned by the previous board of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) after the scandal broke out.

 

SUPERPRICE FOR "NETWORK MONITORING"

The investigation tries to clarify, first, if the club paid a surcharge for the hiring of what the Barcelona government described as a simple "network monitoring", but also if any manager or executive of the entity could benefit financially after awarding said contract to the company. According to what was written in the PWC audit, Bartomeu was the one who asked Jaume Masferrer, who was his court advisor, and CEO Òscar Grau to hire this service. I3 Ventures, one of the companies, was lavish in creating pages and profiles on social networks in which both opponents of Bartomeu and footballers of the entity were attacked.

 

As reported by EL MUNDO in its edition on October 4, and based on the conclusions reflected in the PWC audit, the various contracts between Barcelona and the eight companies linked to NS Group, led by the Uruguayan Carlos Ibáñez, were closed in 1,407,500 euros per year (115,000 per month, plus 27,500 for a first exposure of the work). According to the report, the still CEO of the entity, Grau, ended up renegotiating the price so that a total of 1,107,500 euros would be paid in the 2017-18 season (90,000 per month, plus the 27,500 of the diagnosis).

 

FRAGMENTED CONTRACTS

Who was vice president of FC Barcelona but also responsible for the adjudication commission, Emili Rousaud, who was invited to resign by Bartomeu in full house confinement after the scandal became known, already expressed last April his suspicions that someone could have "put hand in the box ". The contracts signed with the Ibáñez conglomerate were fragmented for amounts less than 200,000 euros so that they did not have to go through the approval of the board of directors.

 

A report from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Mossos delivered to Judge Alejandra Gil Lima, of the court of instruction number 13 of Barcelona, already warned signs of corruption when considering that the club could have paid a price "six times higher" than that of market.

 

Barcelona, without a president since Bartomeu and his board resigned en bloc on October 28, will hold the presidential elections next Sunday.