Barça made a transfer of one million euros of the commission for the signing of Robert Lewandowski to an alleged fraudster who posed as Pini Zahavi, the Polish footballer’s agent.
As revealed this Thursday by the program What do you play? of BE Catalunyaseveral club officials received an email at the end of July 2022 from an address bearing the name of Pini Zahavi in which he requested the payment of the commission to a Bank of Cyprus account. The text included the account number and the name of a lawyer, Michael Gerardus Hermanus Demon.
In the investigation revealed by the radio station, it is revealed that the bank account was opened in July 2022 by the person who received the amount of one million euros. The Barça entity made this transfer, but the Compliance department of the Cypriot bank blocked it because it understood that it was a “high risk” operation: the account had not made any movement before this deposit nor had it been possible to accredit a document that justified this pay.
The financial institution blocked the transfer because it classified the operation as “high risk”
Following these events, the person posing as Pini Zahavi tried to pressure the financial institution several times to allow the transfer. He went so far as to contact bank officials and even threatened to report Barça to UEFA for non-payment, thus preventing Robert Lewandowski from registering. The Bank of Cyprus stood by its position and closed the account in October 2022.
As explained by the BEBarça confirms that it was the victim of an attempted scam but that they were able to recover the million euros that the fake Zahavi requested.
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