The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz has proposed prosecuting the former president of Granada CF for a tax offense Quique Pina and who he considers to be the real owner of the club, the Italian businessman Gino Pozzo Linda. And he does it after verifying that the Granada CF SAD stopped paying taxes to the Spanish Public Treasury almost 10 million euros for the benefits obtained in the transfers of several players. And they did it through financial operations that according to the instructor were meaningless, since the club came to ask for money from the Luxembourg company Fifteen Securitisation SA, linked to the aforementioned Pozzo Linda, to buy players for whom the Andalusian team did not pay a transfer .
Among the players with whose transfers the Treasury would have been defrauded would be, explains the judge, Guilherme Magdalena Siqueira (first he was transferred to the Portuguese Benfica for 1,000,000 euros and then transferred to Atlético de Madrid for 9,000,000 euros); Daniel Pudil (was transferred to the English club Watford for 1,500,000 euros); Allan Marques Loureiro (to SSCN Napoli for 14,155,000 euros); Jeison Fabian Murillo (to FC Internazionale Milano, 8,000,000 euros); Yacine Brahimi (for his transfer to Futebol Clube Do Porto, SAD for a real price of 9,000,000 euros, although it was declared for 6,500,000 euros); and Mikel Rico (transferred to Athletic Club for 2,450,000 euros), according to an order by magistrate Santiago Pedraz, to which EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA has had access.
Among the operations that were meaningless, according to the judge, would be the request for funds for the acquisition of several players who came from the Italian club Udinese Calcio SPA, which according to the investigations was also owned by the family of the investigated Gino Pozzo Linda. However, Granada CF SAD did not pay any compensation for these signings. These purchases, however, appear to be financed by the Luxembourg company of Pozzo Linda.
“Without economic logic”
“This is the case of five players that are acquired by Granada CF SAD with the financial assistance of Fifteen Securitization, with the Italian club Udinese being their final destination, which pays the purchase amount to the Spanish club. Thus, the club acquires a player, receiving the amount of the purchase from Fifteen Securitisation, subsequently, it is sold to Udinese for the same acquisition price, reaching Fifteen Securitisation 95% of that amount, in operations without economic logic and generating losses“, completes the judicial resolution.
Nor does it make sense, continues the judge, for the Spanish club to go to the Luxembourg entity to finance a group of players from the Italian club. Thus, a Udinese player ceded, after being released, his rights to Pozzo companies based in the United Arab Emirates, who promised to find the footballer a Spanish club for his next signing. In parallel, the Emirati companies signed an account contract with Granada CF, through which the club acquired the federative and financial rights of the player. Finally, the companies from the Asian country transferred the rights of the player to the Luxembourg company.
“In the operation there is no financial outlay because there is no payment from the entities of the United Arab Emirates to Udinese, since the player has previously been released, nor in the joint account contract with the Spanish club because the transfer price is zero, nor in the last assignment, since it is in exchange for a bonus; therefore, and from the point of view of Granada CF, there is no reasonable reason to sign the joint account contract with the United Arab Emirates entity“, says the judge, who concludes: “In this case it is about operations by which players with origin in the Italian Udinese arrive at Granada CF SAD without any transfer payment”, highlights the magistrate’s resolution.
Relevant documents
Documents found on a server of Gino Pozzo Linda’s companies reflect the irregularities mentioned in the order. Specifically, the file called in Italian ‘Utilizzo fondi dal 10-28-2011 to 03-15-2013’ contains the complete sequence of the instrumental entities through which the funds are transited. This complex mechanics “lacks all sports and economic logic”, continues the judge, who considers that this ‘modus operandi’ “obeys exclusively to the obtaining of illicit economic benefits to the detriment of the Spanish Public Treasury”.
The document reveals that on numerous occasions there is a change of roles and it is the Granada sports club that advances the funds that it must receive from the entity that supposedly financed the transfers to the clubs of origin. Throughout the 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons, the Granada CF SAD advanced more than eight million euros to the Luxembourg entity of the financing that he later received from her.
In addition, the Andalusian team recovered the rights of eight players who did not meet the expected sporting expectations, and whose contracts were terminated. “In these cases the sports club would no longer need external financial assistance. and it risks recovering the rights of these eight players, since it has disbursed a total of 3,900,000 euros for them, the amount of their acquisition from the clubs of origin that would have been financed by Fifteen Securitization, SA, which obtains a profit of 1, 6 million euros. The conclusion is that it is Granada CF, SAD who assumes the losses of these operations”, continues the magistrate.
19 players
The audit reports highlight that Granada CF acquired 19 players with joint accounts from the company Fifteen Securitization. Only on a specific day, September 30, 2015, the date on which investment funds are prohibited to finance the purchase of players, The Spanish club bought the economic rights of eight footballers from this Luxembourg firm, which obtained a profit of 1,163,000 eurosan amount that did not pay taxes in Spain.
The report highlights that two of these players (Mohammed Fatau and Wilson Antonio Cuero) were “free” at the time of their transfer to Granada CF SAD, so the Luxembourg entity could not make any financial contribution to their purchase. The audit report analyzes this operation and highlights that these same The players were transferred at the start of the 2016/2017 season by Granada CF without consideration, which would mean a loss for the club of 1,500,000 euros.
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To questions from this wording, a spokesman for the club has assured, literally: “The events that are investigated in the referenced proceedings occurred before 2016, when the current owner acquired Granada CF. Granada CF will defend your rights throughout the procedure“.
Sources of the defendants have defended before the questions of this newspaper that Quique Pina only dealt with the sports management of the club and that Pedraz’s resolution has already been appealed before the Criminal Chamber of the National Court. In the same sense, they highlight as positive that the judge has given up charging them with a crime of money laundering. They also warn that they have presented an incident of annulment of the proceedings that could prevent them from being seated in the defendant’s dock.