The Court of Instruction number 22 of Barcelona ha cited to declare as investigatedthe next January 16to the president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, vice president Rafael Yuste and the former directors of the entity Xavier Sala i Martín and Joan Oliver for a alleged crime of swindling 91,500 euros from an investor in 2016.
The order, to which Efe has had access, has admitted for processing the complaint against Laporta, Yuste, Sala i Martín and Oliver, all of them linked to the companies Core Storebased in Spain, and CSSB Limitedbased in Hong Kong, at the time the events occurred.
The plaintiff invested, in mid-2016, through a private banking agent, 50,000 euros as a loan and with a 6 percent interest, in Core Store, which had a strategic plan to promote the promotion of Reus Deportivo from Second Division B to Second Division.
The woman also paid another 54,000 euros in shares of CSSB Limited, whose object was the creation in China of a training academy inspired by FC Barcelona’s La Masia.
In addition to having, a priori, a very good profitability, the main attraction of both projects lay “in the public and professional reputation of the parties involved,” since they were “widely recognized and reputed figures in the sports and business field,” the complaint states.
Laporta then appeared as joint administrator of Core Store alongside Oliver, former general director during his first term as president of the Barça entity, CEO of Reus Deportiu until his disappearance and legal representative of CSSB Limited.
Of the 104,000 euros invested, the affected person only managed to recover 12,500 euros, in August 2024, after various claims for repeated contractual breaches by both companies.
And, after learning through the documentary “Laportagate-The case of Reus 2”, that other people had made failed investments similar to his in Core Store and CSSB Limited, he decided to contact the lawyer Pepe Oriola, who represents those most affected, to take legal action.
This is the third open case in which Joan Laporta is investigated for alleged fraud due to his links with the companies Core Store and CSSB Limited.
