The judge charges Negreira's son with the alleged crime of money laundering and extends the investigation into Barça to the year 2001
The judge investigating the Negreira case closes the siege on the family of the former number two of the Spanish arbitrators; extends its investigations until the first term of the Barcelona president Joan Laporta; warns of a new crime of money laundering; and agrees on the secrecy of the proceedings.
The number one Investigating Court of Barcelona has agreed to summon Javier Enríquez, son of the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, to be investigated. It has adopted this decision at the request of LaLiga, which had requested that the son of the historic number two of the referees be investigated in the case despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office had decided to leave him out of the investigations.
Negreira accuses Barça of “cynicism” and “procedural fraud” when trying to appear as a victim in the investigation
The organization directed by Javier Tebas formally requested that Enríquez Romero not remain outside the judicial investigation since he “collaborated actively and necessary with his father” to charge Barça more than seven million euros in almost two decades.. Not surprisingly, Javier Enríquez is part of the business network that his father used to bill for alleged arbitration advice and prepared reports on the referees that refereed the club in the different categories.
Likewise, and as LaLiga recalled in its petition, Enríquez Romero received payments from at least six referees for coaching services between 2016 and 2018 that included the transfer of referees to the stadiums.. Despite the fact that he completely disassociated himself from his father's activities, the court has finally decided to change his status from witness to defendant and he will be cited in court in the coming months.
The accusation of Negreira Jr.. contravenes the position of the Public Ministry, which from the outset maintained that his father reached with Barcelona “an agreement that he never revealed to his son.”
Billing increase
It should be remembered that the Prosecutor's Office denounced Negreira Sr. and Barça for sports corruption and maintains that the Barça club resorted to the services of the former arbitration leader to alter the sports results in their favor. Specifically, he maintains that Barça, under the mandate of different presidents, paid the number two of the referees while he was active so that he “carried out actions tending to favor FC Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches that the club played.” and thus in the results of the competitions».
In parallel, the Barcelona court has agreed to keep the proceedings secret and to extend the period investigated until at least the year 2001.. In such a way that, although the investigations are directed against the former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu because their payments to Negreira have not expired, the operations ordered by Laporta will also be examined. The latter not only maintained the payments to Negreira's instrumental companies but also increased, for no apparent reason, the turnover of the arbitration leader with the club.
As revealed by EL MUNDO, the KPMG auditor already warned in an internal report commissioned by FC Barcelona that Laporta had increased payments to Negreira by 102% in a single year using as a pretext the “recording of matches of the absolute Spanish National Team and sub'21 in the South African Confederations Cup».
Javier Enríquez Romero, during one of his talks.
In the opinion of the Prosecutor's Office, the invoices issued by Negreira to Barcelona do not respond “to any real technical advisory service or benefit”, despite the fact that the former referee declared before the Tax Agency that he provided “verbal advice” to the club to achieve, He indicated that the arbitrations of the Barcelona matches “were neutral”. The “reason” that led the club to “end all payments” in July 2018 was not, according to the accusation, but the fact that Negreira was relieved of the vice-presidency of the body in May of that year, barely two months. before the last of the installments you received.
The judicial investigation is currently concentrating on trying to determine if Negreira used the more than seven million that he received from Barça to bribe referees. The judge has ordered the Guardia Civil to trace the final destination of the money after verifying that the arbitration leader withdrew an average of 20,000 euros a month in cash from the bank, the trail of which is unknown.