The CEO of Milan Giorgio Furlani and his predecessor Ivan Gazidis are under investigation by the Milan prosecutor’s office for obstacle to supervisory activity from the Figc in relation to the failure to notify the beneficial owner of the club. In short, the suspicion is that the club is still in the hands of fondo Elliott despite having been formally transferred to Redbird Of Gerry Cardinalenow from August 2022. Un “substantial control”according to investigators, who believe they were declared “facts that do not correspond to the truth” with respect to the “economic, patrimonial, financial situation” and “the ownership structure” even by concealing with “fraudulent means”. In essence, they would have hidden from the Football Association that Elliott, despite the sale two years ago, still controlled the club.
The Currency Police Unit of Financial Police has done searches in the headquarters of the Rossoneri club. Other searches were also carried out in the homes private of the two managers, aimed at the acquisition of mail, documents and the contents of the smartphone. Four in all those under investigation: in addition to Furlani and Gadizis, Elliotj’s manager is also under investigation Jean Marc McLean e Daniela ItaliaItalian citizen with residence in Luxembourg.
The Milanese investigation, in the hands of prosecutors Giovanni Polizzi e Giovanna Knights, starts from the hypothesis that Milan does not really belong to Cardinale, but is still under the control and influence of the Eliott fund, which two years ago had in theory sold the Rossoneri club. A circumstance that emerges from various documents, including those seized from April 2023 in the offices of Project Redblack and its subsidiary Rossoneri Sportthe two companies in Luxembourg through which the US fund Elliott he had in fact sold Milan to RedBird for further one billion euros. Since then, the same two former managers of Project Redblack, McLean and Italia, have been under investigation for the crime of bankruptcy.
There were some who gave new life to the financiers’ investigations documents emerged in recent months. These are documents filed with Sec in the United States and a report interno of the club prepared to present the company in the winter tour of management contacts with potentials Arab investors. In the first case, we read in the seizure decree, “the circumstance would appear to emerge that most of the capital used for the sale is coming from a corporate vehicle not referable” to RedBird itself; in the second document – which arrived at the prosecutor’s office, it is not clear how, according to the Corriere della Sera – according to the financiers it would be clear that “the dominant influence” on Milan is still by Elliott, again on the basis of “vender loan agreement” signed in 2022 through which Elliott had lent 560 million euros to RedBird to complete the purchase of Milan a 1.2 billion euros.
From the analyzes by the Gdf of a “document called ‘Ac Milan Investor Presentation'”, among the various documents acquired in the investigation, it would in fact be confirmed “that the ‘vendor loan'”, i.e. the seller’s loan, “underwritten between RedBird and Elliott” for the sale of Milan, “guarantees this latest investment fund the ownership of part of the company”. An analysis carried out by investigators also in relation to sales items of part of the club’s shares “ad investors of the Arab world”, with which “they would already be interjected the first discussions” on December 19th.
The investigation started from a complaint from the Luxembourg woman Blue Skye for the matter relating to a “pledge” (already contested in other places as well). When Milan changed hands, Salvatore Wheel rim he resigned from the Board of Directors in controversy and threatened a cause in courtdenouncing “opacity in the sales process”. Rim and Gianluca D’Avanzo with the Blue Skye Financial Partners at the time of the sale they held 4.27% of Project Redblack, the “box” to which Milan was attributable, which is formally extraneous to the investigation that exploded with the searches at the headquarters. Now, however, the file in the hands of the Milan prosecutors has taken another direction, which for Milan could also pose the risk of sanctions sportive. In fact, if the accusations were to be confirmed, the club would have circumvented the regulation Figc and also violated Article 5 of Uefaas Elliott also manages the French club of Lille – which like Milan participated in the Champions League – and from whom the Rossoneri purchased the goalkeeper Mike Maignan and the attacker Rafael Leao.
2024-03-12 16:00:47
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