Spanish prosecutors want Brazilian star Neymar tried over fraud allegedly committed during his 2013 transfer to Barcelona, a judicial source said yesterday.
Prosecutors from Spain’s top criminal court accuse the striker, his father, Barca’s ex-president Sandro Rosell and the club itself of concealing the cost of the multimillion-euro transfer from Brazilian investment fund DIS.
DIS held 40 percent of the 24-year-old’s sporting rights when he played at Brazil’s Santos club and has said it was cheated of its real share of the transfer due to parallel contracts that Barcelona and Santos allegedly used to hide the total cost.
The case first came to light after fans and members of Barcelona launched an internal complaint, leading eventually to the resignation of Rossell.
The transfer deal was originally valued at 57.1 million euros (US$64.9 million) by Barca, 40 million of which was paid to the N&N company owned by the player’s father.
Santos received 17.1 million, 6.8 million euros of which went to DIS.
However, Spanish judicial authorities have estimated the number of simultaneous deals in the transfer amounted to at least 83.3 million euros — with the difference allegedly going to Neymar and his family, and Santos.
The Brazilian soccer star and his father have in the past defended themselves in the media.
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