If Joan Laporta is not investigated in the Negreira case It is not because he has not committed any crime, but only because those alleged crimes have expired. The judge investigating the million-dollar payments from FC Barcelona to former refereeing vice president José María Enríquez Negreira has sent a warning to the current Barça president: “Laporta’s conduct is identical to that of the two subsequent presidents,” says the judge in reference to Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, who succeeded him in office and who remain under investigation for a crime of bribery.
In an order in which he rejects Barça’s accusation in the case, Judge Joaquín Aguirre recalls that during Laporta’s first term at the head of the club (2003-2010) “payments were also made to the Enríquez family through the companies that they used as intermediaries.” Coinciding with his prolonged period as number two of the Arbitration Technical Committee (CTA), Barça paid more than seven million euros to Negreira for alleged technical advice of which there is no documentary trace. Later, the club also paid his son, Javier Enríquez, for reports in which she analyzed the behavior on the pitch of the referees who were going to blow the whistle on the Barça first team.
Aguirre warns that, “at the current procedural moment”, no crime has been attributed to Laporta “not for reasons” that have to do with the illegality of the acts committed during that first term, but for “the application of the rules of criminal prescription.” The crime of corruption in sports (which was initially attributed to those investigated) prescribes after five years, while in bribery (which the judge now considers to be consistent with the facts investigated) the statute of limitations can reach some cases at 10 years. Laporta’s first term, in any case, is outside that scope, since the first investigations by the Prosecutor’s Office began in 2022.
Ethical reproach to the president
Outside of strictly legal matters, the judge issues another warning to Laporta in the ethical field. Barça intends to bring private prosecution in the case for a crime of disloyal administration. The judge considers (as he already did in June) that it is not possible because he would also have to accuse the rest of the crimes and, then, the club “would be accusing itself.” Aguirre assures that the Barça entity commits “legal fraud” by pretending to be an accusation and points to the president: “It is not ethically admissible for Laporta to accuse presidents Rosell and Bartomeu for the crime of disloyal administration, when there are more than ample indications that “Laporta committed the same acts as subsequent presidents,” he emphasizes. And he remembers that it is Laporta who appoints the legal team that represents him in the Negreira case and that he has behaved, he reiterates, “contrary to all ethics.”
Along with Rosell and Bartomeu, another of those investigated in the case is Enríquez Negreira, who this morning went to the offices of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Catalonia (Imelec). The judge ordered that he be examined by a forensic examiner to prove whether he suffers from symptoms of dementia, as his defense has alleged. It will depend on this report to know whether it is considered that Negreira, 78 years old, is qualified to face a judicial process or, on the contrary, is exonerated for medical reasons.
After Negreira’s money
In another order also issued this Monday, the judge has ordered various banking entities to hand over all current account movements of Negreira and his companies since 2001, when he began receiving payments from Barça. The judge suspects that Barça tried to fix matches in their favor with the payments to the former number two of the Spanish referees and believes that there was “systemic corruption” in the arbitration, but there is a lack of evidence for now to determine this. A few days ago, the Civil Guard searched the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in search of clues.
The request to the banks is extensive. He wants, through the Civil Guard, seven different banking entities to account for the banking movements of a series of accounts associated with Negreira, his son, various relatives of these and the companies through which the Barça payments were conveyed. . Since 2001, movements must include the “express identification of their counterparts, determining the origin and destination of the funds.” In order to know if the money paid to Negreira served to buy the will of arbitrators, the judge has ordered that information be provided about the checks and the people who cashed them be identified. It also demands data on insurance, pension plans or funds contracted by the former arbitration leader and his family, as well as whether at any time they have had safes or security deposit boxes in any of the entities.
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