The former administrator of Doyen Sports Investments, Nélio Lucas, this Wednesday refused any lack of transparency in the origin of the investment fund’s capital and assured, in the judgment of the ‘Football Leaks’ case, that the money was “clean”.
In the first part of the testimony given at the 21st session, the businessman, heard as a witness, was asked about the structure of the investment fund allegedly attacked by Rui Pinto in 2015, having clarified that he held 20% of Doyen’s capital, while the remaining 80% belonged to the Turkish partner Malik Ali, with links to Kazakhstan and who assumed the inflow of money for investments in players.
The collective of judges insisted with Nélio Lucas to explain how Doyen was organized by different companies and how it managed to capitalize itself, raising the possibility of “lack of transparency” in the investment fund, with assistant judge Ana Paula Conceição to consider “a good way to circulate illicitly obtained money”.
The 41-year-old businessman stated that he had met his partner in London through “friends in common” in a “private club” and that the money came from Malik Ali’s family, with links to mining and real estate. “I was introduced to me as a person from a very prominent family, with businesses in various areas and who could have an interest in football,” he said.
And it was after a moment of greater tension at the hearing, with the assistant judge questioning the witness for thinking that he was in a “debate”, asking for “direct answers and without collateral considerations”, that Nélio Lucas defended the legality of Doyen’s money , stressing that “contracts with public deed” were current practice of the fund.
my partner’s income [Malik Ali] they came from his family. My only concern was whether this money was lawful. We did an assessment and Barclays Bank in England ensured that the money was clean. I knew these funds came from his family’s investments, but I didn’t have to know exactly from what. To transfer certain large sums, banks carried out their own steps”, he stressed.
The former administrator of Doyen Sports Investments, Nélio Lucas, revealed this Wednesday at the trial of the ‘Football Leaks’ case that the investment fund targeted by Rui Pinto’s alleged intrusion did not lose any money in the deals made with the clubs.
Doyen didn’t lose money. With this type of business, I never lost,” said Nélio Lucas, in response to the risks that fell on the investment fund, stressing: “Doyen’s risk was that the player would not be transferred and the valuation was limited to interest, never more than 10% a year”, he added, after detailing that Doyen contracted the same percentage of a future transfer in relation to the amount initially invested.
CEO of Doyen between 2011 and 2017, Nélio Lucas declared that the investment fund based in Malta “Practically” didn’t talk to the players and that the “counterpart has always been the clubs”, refusing any ownership of the players’ passes. In this regard, he noted that Doyen advocated ‘TPI’ contracts [third part investment] and not ‘TPO’ [third part ownership, na sigla em inglês], as it was later banned by FIFA.
The players were never from the bottom, they were from the clubs. They became club assets and passes belong to the clubs. Our interest was in revaluation, we invested in economic rights, which were associated with federative law, the pass. The asset is always the club, we have the possibility of receiving the valuation and the player had no contractual obligation with us”, creased.
Directly asked about the connection to Sporting and the business that existed with the Alvalade club, namely the players Marcos Rojo and Zakaria Labyad, Nélio Lucas stressed that the ‘Leonino’ emblem was in a situation “extremely complex in 2012”, what “I needed to make capital” and that it was Sporting, at the time of the presidency of Godinho Lopes, to look for Doyen to do business.
In the specific case of Rojo, which would give rise to a dispute between Sporting, already in the term of Bruno de Carvalho, the former administrator of Doyen stressed that the investment fund advanced 75% of the investment of four million euros in hiring Spartak Moscow and which was responsible for the first three installments, with the lions having the fourth and final tranche. “When Sporting no longer have the player, they hadn’t even paid the installment,” he noted.
Rui Pinto, 31, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Federation of Football (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and extortion, as attempted. This last crime concerns Doyen and it was also what led to the prosecution of lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, “due to his collaboration” with the Judiciary Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but is, for security reasons, included in the witness protection program in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
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