The judge accuses Barça of bribery for payments to Negreira

The judge investigating the ‘Negreira case’, Joaquín Aguirre, has determined that the Barcelona Football Club, as a legal entity, as well as the former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeu, among other directors, could have committed a crime of bribery for the payments « consummated” for 18 years to José María Enríquez Negreira, former referee leader.

The magistrate considers in a ruling known this Thursday that bribery (an illegal act committed by those who request, accept or offer money, gifts or favors in exchange for an act related to the exercise of public office) has occurred when the deliveries were made. valued at 7.5 million euros, although the investigation “demonstrates or not the systemic corruption of Spanish arbitration due to such payments.”

Judge Aguirre’s resolution also indicates that Barcelona paid through two “intermediate companies”, Dasnil 95 SL and Nilsad SCP, the amount of 7.5 million for the technical advisory services of Enríquez Negreira, one of the three vice presidents of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) between the years 2000 and 2018. “A fact not denied and documented” in the investigation, the order states. The CTA is integrated into the organizational chart of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (FEF), a private entity of public utility.

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In the case of the main accused, Enríquez Negreira, 78 years old, he is charged with a continuous crime of passive bribery (accepting any type of remuneration in exchange for carrying out an act contrary to the correct exercise of his duties) as the author, while to his son Javier another continued crime of passive bribery as a necessary collaborator. Regarding the legal entity of Barcelona and the club directors under investigation -Óscar Grau, Albert Soler, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu- they are attributed with a continuous crime of active bribery (committed by the individual who requests the bribe and delivers the remuneration) . All of this, the judge points out, without prejudice to maintaining the alternative classification of the crime of sports corruption, at least during this investigation phase.

The 21-page order, which marks a before and after in the case because it opens the horizon of the oral trial, also includes the application of the jurisprudence on bribery applied in this criminal procedure. It states that Enríquez Negreira carried out public functions, as if he were an official, as vice president of the CTA, among others those related to the qualifications of the referees and their promotions and demotions through an evaluation and scoring system. And he concludes that the payments from the Barça club can be considered in light of the position he held.

These deliveries lasted approximately 18 years under the presidencies of Joan Gaspart, Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu and increased from the initial 70,000 euros (2001) to more than 700,000 euros annually (2014 and 2015). , distributed in monthly installments as a general rule.

The entity cut the payments as soon as Negreira ceased as vice president of the CTA. «By logical deduction – the judge details in his order – the payments made by FC Barcelona satisfied the interests of the club in view of their duration and the annual increase. From this it is also deduced that they produced the refereeing effects desired by the club, in such a way that there must have been inequality in treatment with other teams and the consequent systemic corruption in the Spanish arbitration as a whole.

However, the investigations of the Civil Guard “can only confirm these points obtained by logical inference,” warns the instructor, since at the moment there is no evidence that Negreira’s assignment directly influenced the arbitrations. Furthermore, after being dismissed as vice president of the CTA in May 2018, the club decided to dispense with his services and he sent an intimidating letter indicating to the then president Bartomeu, in essence, that if they did not continue paying him “he would reveal a series of facts that could harm seriously to the club.

A mention from which the judge infers that Negreira “was aware” that “quite serious” illicit acts had occurred in favor of FC Barcelona. Therefore, the instructor concludes, the continued bribery has been consummated once the payments have been made. A serious crime typical of corruption cases, which carries a prison sentence of three to six years and a fine of twelve to 24 months, along with a special disqualification from employment and office for a period of nine to twelve years.

2023-09-28 12:25:03
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