Excellent hearing day (at a football level) in the investigation that sees the Juventus board investigated for false accounting in relation to alleged fictitious capital gains (382 million euros according to the judges) and the deferral of four months’ salaries of the players (90 million) during the first wave of the pandemic. (March-June 2020).
Juventus, Napoli, Sampdoria, Genoa and Empoli referred to the federal prosecutor for illicit capital gains
Giuseppe Legato
Juan Cuadrado, a talented Colombian winger, arrived first in the prosecutor’s office this morning. A couple of hours later it was Captain Chiellini’s turn to sit in front of the magistrates, and other players should arrive in the afternoon. Chiellini is considered a particularly relevant witness because – according to internal reconstructions in the locker room – he acted as mediator between the company and the team group when the decision was taken to postpone the four months’ salary to coincide with the first wave of the pandemic.
The magistrates Marco Gianoglio, Mario Bendoni and Ciro Santoriello will ask the players for an account of how the negotiation on the freezing of salaries and on the agreement for the subsequent restitution developed.
Juve investigation: the FIGC president Gravina in conversation with the prosecutor
At 15.30 it was Leonardo Bonucci’s turn to enter the office of the deputy prosecutor Marco Gianoglio to be heard as a person informed on the facts. He is the third player audited today at Palagiustizia after Juan Cuadrado and after captain Giorgio Chiellini whose dialogue with the magistrates lasted just over two hours. The same duration of the interrogation also for Leonardo Bonucci.
Complete picture, now it’s up to the consultants
An agreement that appeared in the financial report as a “waiver” of some salaries, but which in practice was a simple deferral of payments to the following year’s budget year. According to rumors, the investigative hypothesis of the Turin prosecutor’s office in the context of the investigations on the accounts of Juventus would have found a series of confirmations during the hearings held during the last week and culminating today with the testimonies of the three players heard today.
The next days
The collection of testimonies will continue in the coming days but, from this point of view, in investigative circles the picture is now considered almost complete. The problem that the magistrates will have to solve, with the help of their consultants, is whether Juventus’ behavior has been correct from an accounting point of view. Their thesis, for the moment, is that reductions and additions should have been registered in the same year. The proceeding is open for false communications from listed companies and the issue of documents for fictitious transactions. There are no players or prosecutors under investigation.