Analysis.The great coup of the Generalitat against Barça
Opinion.The moral ruin of Barcelona
Auto The arrest of Bartomeu was a decision of the Mossos
Josep Maria Bartomeu
, former president of Barcelona, had not appeared publicly since he resigned with the rest of his board of directors on October 28.
He left behind a club on the brink of bankruptcy, with a
debt of 1,173 million euros
;
to a moody star, with
Leo Messi demanding his departure through a burofax
;
but also a haze where the scandal baptized in its day as
Barçagate
still remained in a semi-catatonic state
.
Rather,
Bartogate
.
Until, six days before the Barça club's elections, Bartomeu and his closest collaborator during his turbulent legislature,
Jaume Masferrer
, ended up sleeping in the cells of the Les Corts police station.
Bartomeu and his faithful presidential advisor - the same one who was suspended from employment, but not from salary - will go to court in the next few hours.
The other two arrested in the operation investigating crimes of unfair administration and corruption between individuals,
Òscar Grau
, still CEO of Fútbol Club Barcelona, and
Román Gómez Ponti
, head of legal services, were released on charges against the waiting to be summoned by the magistrate.
None of the detainees wanted to testify to the police.
The magistrate
Alejandra Gil Lima
, of the court of instruction number 13 of Barcelona, ordered the simultaneous search this Monday of the private homes of Bartomeu and Masferrer,
of the offices of the Barça club in the Camp Nou
, and also of the headquarters of the companies
I3 Ventures, NSG Social Science and Telampartnet
.
The judge, however, had not claimed any arrests.
The arrests of Bartomeu and his three collaborators were carried out by agents from the Central Economic Crimes Area of the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) of the Mossos d'Esquadra
.
An unusual procedure, but that can be carried out with the intention that those investigated do not eliminate evidence, as explained by legal sources to this newspaper.
The Catalan police had been finding for months that they were not obtaining facilities from those investigated each time specific documentation of the case was requested from them.
Last June, in fact, the Mossos already went to the Camp Nou to collect information.
But it seemed impossible that the investigation could be accelerated.
In fact,
the lifting of the summary secrecy has been postponed up to six times
because the judge was still waiting for statements and documents that had not been delivered.
Seven hours of registration
This Monday, first thing in the morning, the operation finally began.
The agents who went to the Camp Nou made a
very exhaustive search in the Barcelona offices.
So much so that it lasted seven hours
.
Other club employees were also questioned by the Mossos in the same offices.
The investigator of the case asked the Mossos to locate and intervene "documentation of any kind directly or indirectly related to the contracting of services" related to
Barçagate
.
In the order of the investigating court number 13, the Catalan police were empowered to collect "written communications such as letters, emails or similar", in addition to empowering the agents to open "documents with communications on both physical media such as ordinary mail letters all types".
Employee computers were analyzed and the Mossos were enabled to analyze mobile phones or external memory devices
.
The
Barçagate
, uncovered by the
Cadena Ser
on 17 February 2020, ie nearly a year ago, was born as a frame of ethical component.
A series of companies carried through the conglomerate NS Group, led by the Uruguayan
Carlos Ibáñez
, had been creating content on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter with the aim of attacking opponents of the Bartomeu board.
Also to own soccer players.
But both the price paid for the services, exceeding one million euros per year, and the zeal with which the contracts were prevented from passing through the scrutiny of the board of directors - invoices always cut into amounts less than 200,000 euros, outside the reach of the adjudication commission-, raised suspicions that this could be just the tip of the iceberg.
"Someone has reached into the box"
The scandal caused in April 2020, in full house confinement, the resignation of six Barcelona executives.
Among them was
Emili Rousaud
, who was to be Bartomeu's electoral dolphin, but whom the then president asked to leave.
Rousaud, who was precisely the chairman of the adjudication commission through which the contracts of the investigated conglomerate never passed, slammed the door shouting: "Someone has reached into the box."
Barcelona also decided to suspend the job and salary of its compliance officer, Noelia Romero, without being able to carry out its own investigation into the events.
Rousaud, before leaving, had made a commitment to Bartomeu that he would commission an audit from the company Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC).
As reported by EL MUNDO in its edition on October 4, and based on the conclusions reflected in said audit,
the various contracts between Barcelona and the eight companies linked to NS Group were closed at 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).
The judicial procedure, in any case, had already started on June 17, 2020. A group of eight Barcelona partners, under the Dignitat Blaugrana platform, represented by the lawyer Tino Adell, filed a
complaint for alleged unfair administration and corruption between individuals
.
A report from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Mossos delivered to Judge Alejandra Gil Lima already warned of signs of corruption when it considered that
the club could have paid a price "six times higher" than the market price
.
Barcelona, without a president for four months, with a Manager still in charge, and with the last occupant of the armchair at the police station, will hold its elections next Sunday in the same judicialized environment that has decomposed the club's image in recent years
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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