Suspicious transactions, inflated costs of players, accounting irregularities. The prosecutors of Rome and Tivoli take the field with investigations on any irregularities in the sale of players from Rome, Lazio and Salernitana. Checks that concern four football seasons, from 2017 to the one that ended in the summer of 2021, and which led to the entry in the register of suspects of the top management of the companies: from the president of Lazio, Claudio Lotito, to the president and vice president of Roma Dan and Ryan Friedkin and former company patron James Pallotta. With them also a dozen managers.
The searches of the Gdf
The acceleration of the preliminary investigation took place with a series of searches and acquisitions of documents carried out in the offices of the three clubs by the men of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Rome. As far as Roma are concerned overall 11 operations finished to the attention of the investigators, 7 those concerning the Biancoceleste club and Salernitana. In recent days, in Piazzale Clodio, due to territorial jurisdiction, the documents of the Turin max investigation have arrived on a series of market transactions that the Juventus club has had with a series of other teams.
From Luca Pellegrini to Spinazzola: transfers in the sights
In particular, the segment of the Prisma proceeding concerning the transfers of players was sent to the attention of the Capitoline magistrates Luca Pellegrini and Leonardo Spinazzola occurred close to 30 June 2019 before the closing of the financial statements. But the investigation into the Giallorossi club, which sees nine people plus the company under investigation, also concerns the transfers of Marchizza and Frattesi to Sassuolo, of Tumminello at Atalanta, of Luca Pellegrini at Juve, of Cetin, Chancellors and Diaby at Verona. As for purchases beyond Spinazzola, the names are those of Defrel from Sassuolo, of Cristante from Atalanta and of Plums from Verona. The crimes alleged for various reasons range from false corporate communications to fraudulent declarations through false invoicing.
Relations between Lazio and Salernitana
For its part, the investigation by the Tivoli prosecutor’s office, as the chief prosecutor Francesco Menditto specifies in a note, concerns “SS Lazio Spa and US Salernitana 1919 srl” and the verification activity is not connected “with others carried out by other prosecutors of the Republic”. In the municipality on the outskirts of Rome the proceeding was initiated a few days ago and the crimes for which they are proceeding are “issue of invoices for non-existent operations and fraudulent declaration through the use of invoices for non-existent transactions” as well as for “false company communications against some people who, as mentioned, must be considered innocent until definitively sentenced”.
The transfers of players to Salernitana
The suspicious transactions are those related to the players Sprocati, Casasola, Marino, Cicerelli, Novella, Morrone, Akpa Akpro. In particular, the indictment states that Lotito, as Chairman of the Management Board of “SS Lazio SpA”, together with Marco Moschini as Managing Director, Marco Cavaliere, as Administrative Director and Igli Tare as Sports Director of the Company , “in competition with each other, making use of the sales invoices of the players sold by US Salernitana, the result of artificial evaluations compared to the market value of the individual player at the time of the sale, they indicated fictitious passive elements (“inflated” costs) in the annual tax returns, as well as showing the respective disproportionate purchase values of the players in the company financial statements, thus distorting the value of the assets of the sports club”. With regard to the searches carried out today, Us Salernitana 1919 “clarifies that the current corporate structure is completely extraneous to the operations under investigation” and specifies that it has “extended the utmost collaboration to the investigative bodies” and that “it remains at their further disposal”.
La Roma: “Always operated in full compliance with the rules”
“L’AS Rome takes note of the start of investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Rome against the Company as well as some of its current and previous managers”. is collaborating with the competent authorities and hopes that full clarity on the matter will be clarified as soon as possible, believing that have always operated in full compliance with current regulations“.
Lazio defends itself: “All the documents are in place”
“SS Lazio is a crystal house in which all documents are in place and always available of all authorities. In our work, we have always adhered to a perspective of loyal and total cooperation and, therefore, any documentation requested from us would have been immediately delivered by us. We still feed the maximum respect for the judiciary and we therefore trust to quickly dispel any misunderstanding or doubt in relation to the disputed hypotheses”. Finally, with regard to the searches carried out, Us Salernitana 1919 “clarifies that the current corporate structure is completely foreign to the operations under investigation” and specifies that he “gave the maximum collaboration to the investigative bodies” and that “he remains at their disposal”.