A high-ranking official of the Tax Agency defrauded 6,281,078.86 euros to dozens of First Division football and basketball players in Spain, by appropriating the corresponding returns of the Income Tax for Individuals (Personal Income Tax).
The Prosecutor's Office has concluded the investigation into the biggest scandal that splashes the Treasury in relation to the world of sport in recent years and requests an 11-year prison sentence for fraud, falsehood and use and use of privileged information against which it was responsible of the Dependency Unit of Assistance and Tax Services, Leonor Sánchez-Caballero .
THE WORLD has had access to the final result of the research, which reveals the true dimension of this scandal, advanced by this newspaper a year ago.
The Treasury puts 38 concrete examples and raises the number of possible athletes affected to 102. Among the victims are two former Real Madrid players, the Turks Nuri Sahin and Hamit Altintop , to whom the defendant allegedly distracted almost two million euros that corresponded to them and who asked the Treasury on their behalf forging the documentation.
This official, who had the help of her partner and two lawyers to falsify the requests and articulate the diversion of money, also approved, according to the Public Ministry, more than half a million of the former players of Atlético de Madrid Eduardo Salvio , Elías Mendes and Sinama Pongolle . In the case of former Valencianist Aly Cissokho , 415,000 euros that corresponded to him were diverted and he falsified documents to steal some 600,000 euros from players of the first team of Real Madrid and Barcelona basketball.
The Public Ministry accuses Sánchez-Caballero and two lawyers of "agreeing to enrich themselves." All of them appropriated in just over a year, between February 2015 and November 2016, of more than six million euros that the Treasury had to return to dozens of professional athletes.
Certificates and counterfeits
To this end, two companies were employed, Asesores Deportivos Lapver, SL, and Star Athletes Society, SL Both entities «asked the Tax Agency for returns of various economic amounts to which several soccer and basketball players who had played in Spanish teams could be entitled to previous years and of those who had no knowledge ». The subtracted funds "corresponded to the difference between the income tax withholdings borne by these players as taxable persons in their tax returns made as residents in Spain and the fees that they really had to enter as nonresident taxpayers."
To obtain the money, those involved directly supplanted the identity of the athletes before the Treasury and presented “residence certificates, proof of the withholdings made by the clubs in which they had played” or “supporting documents proving the identification and ownership of the account of refund and legal accreditation of the taxpayer to receive the refund ». Falsifying in this way not only the documents but the signatures of the athletes.
The main victim of the plot was the former Real Madrid player Sahin, to whom those involved subtracted 1,212,158 euros. His compatriot Altintop, who also played for Real Madrid, was robbed of 552,272 euros. They also highlight, in the list of scammed, the former player of Valencia Cissokho, which corresponded 415,337 euros that never received or former players of Atlético de Madrid, international with their respective selections, such as the Argentine Salvio and the Brazilian Elías. The first was subtracted from 376,092 euros; to the second, 209,896.
Virtually unknown
Among those affected are numerous former Sevilla players such as Marius Stankevicius , who were distracted over a million euros. But also players known in Spanish football as Pierre Webó , who played in the ranks of Osasuna, Leganés and Mallorca, and who distracted 84,472 euros.
There are also striking cases of virtually unknown players, such as the Argentine Javier Hernán Malagueño , who signed for Málaga and only played five games in two years. However, despite his fleeting passage through the Spanish League, the plot scammed him almost half a million euros.
In the section of basketball players are, among others, the American base Dontaye Draper , who played a couple of years at Real Madrid and who was deducted 144,313 euros. Also, with almost half a million euros distracted, there are several former American players from Barcelona.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- sports
- football
- Real Madrid
- Atlético de Madrid
- Valencia CF
- CA Osasuna
- Basketball
- Real Madrid Basketball
Champions League Draw of the Champions, live: Madrid and Valencia, the best unemployed
Champions League Draw of the Champions League: friendly with Madrid and Valencia; Barcelona and Atlético go badly unemployed
LaLiga SantanderAl Atlético is worth the minimum