The former referee José María Enríquez Negreira proceeded to withdraw almost 30% in cash, specifically 28.12%, of the money that FC Barcelona paid him from 2016 to 2019, according to the report of the Tax agency to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access. It would be about 557,871 million euros, an amount that, according to Treasury investigations, could have been allocated “directly” to disbursements to third parties, which it does not specify, although it also details possible “returns” of funds to the Barça club or its environment.
In this sense, the Tax Agency recommends analyzing whether the former director of the deceased club, Joseph Contreras, or another person who was part of the board of directors of the entity “on a constant basis” could have facilitated the contracts under suspicion and “have benefited from them via cash return.” The funds were withdrawn from the accounts of the Enríquez Negreira companies in bearer checks cashed by a secretary or another person she trusted. The money, later, was given in cash to the former arbitration leader. In his statement, Negreira told the Tax Agency that as vice president of the CTA “he did not charge anything. I have never wanted to charge because I already had my company and received from FC Barcelona.”
The report highlights that there are constant Visa payments by Enríquez Negreira “in relevant amounts” that would be covering “most of the personal expenses”, from which it “infers” that the former arbitration leader “did not need to withdraw funds in cash , for such a high amount”, to meet their daily needs. One more piece of information: no increase in his assets has been found that “is consistent” with the income received from Barça, which “does not allow us to conclude” that the defendant “was the only and last recipient of all the funds.”
The Tax Agency found in the safe of Contreras’ home, during a search, a sheet with the properties of the ex-director and in which twenty appeared, mainly flats, between Barcelona (where else), Comarruga, Torredembarra and Sant Hilari de take me out
No evidence of bribery
In the proceedings of the prosecutor’s office, which opened the investigations a year ago, and which are in the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona, there is no evidence, for now, that points to bribery of any arbitrator. The complaint filed by the public prosecution maintains, instead, that, through Rosell and Bartomeu, Barça reached and maintained a “strictly confidential” verbal agreement with Enríquez Negreira, so that, in his capacity as vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees and “in exchange for money”, carry out actions tending to favor the club in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the team, and “thus in the results of the competitions”. This yes, the ex-director referee goes so far as to say in Treasury that what the FC Barcelona wanted was “that decisions were not taken against” of the club and that “everything was neutral”.
The prosecution even required information from the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on how the referees who must whistle each of the matches are designated. The federative entity responded that between the years 2013 and 2018 the appointment of the arbitration team was made between 10 and 12 days prior to the celebration of the day and that there was no direct communication to the first and second class clubs, but it was through La Liga and the RFEF. Enríquez Negreira said in his statement to the Treasury that he did not appoint the arbitrators, but the president did.
“Illegal” services
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In a report from the Tax Agency, it details that Enríquez Negreira collected from Barça through two companies and that “the accumulated amount” between the years 2001 and 2018 is greater than 7.5 million euros (VAT included) and that “it does not correspond to an economic activity that has been accredited”. Nor has the reason for the bills been clarified, nor the “real concept” of them “beyond the vague answers.” According to the Treasury, this lack of “accreditation and explanation” could be “an indication” that the invoices issued to the club “could be covering up lawful services.” Judge Silvia López Mejía has commissioned the Civil Guard to investigate the real reason for these payments.
The investigation focuses on the mandates of Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, although the Tax Agency report indicates that these disbursements were also made during the stage in which Carlos Tusquets was in charge of the manager of the Barça club. The prosecution has only denounced the first two (plus the former executives Oscar Grau and Albert Soler) and not Tusquets, who is proposed as a witness, as well as the former presidents Joan Gaspart and the current Joan Laporta, who must clarify his management during the first stage at Barça.
