Former Barça President Sandro Rosell arrives at the Ciutat de la Justicia where he sits on the bench this Monday accused of defrauding the Treasury in 2012. Enric Fontcuberta (EFE)
Former Barça president Sandro Rosell this Monday accepted his right not to testify in the trial he is facing in a Barcelona court for defrauding the Treasury of €230,591 in 2012 by selling a company he runs used to bill for its professional services. Rosell, for whom prosecutors are seeking a sentence of two years and nine months in prison, has refused “on the advice of his lawyers” to answer questions from the parties, including those of his defense, referring to the statement that was borrowed in four years ago investigating the case when he denied having any intention of defrauding the Treasury Department.
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Prosecutors accuse Rosell of a crime against the Treasury and are seeking a fine of €300,000 and a ban on him receiving any subsidies or public aid and tax incentives for three years. The public prosecutor is applying for mitigating damages from the former Barça president, since he paid back a total of 287,911 euros to the state treasury in June 2019, which corresponds to the evaded fee plus interest.
Rosell will face another trial next October over Neymar’s signing, in which prosecutors will sentence him to five years in prison on charges of inter-individual corruption and fraud over the Brazilian footballer’s irregular signing by FC Barcelona in 2013.
The former Barça president spent more than two years in preventive detention by order of the National Court, charged with money laundering of commissions of up to 20 million euros he received for the audiovisual rights to 24 matches of the Brazilian football team and a contract with Nike from which it was paid he was acquitted in 2019. The defendant, who is considering running for mayor of Barcelona, filed a lawsuit against former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo last week to determine if it was the cause that kept him in provisional detention for nearly two years the result of a police constellation as part of the so-called Operation Catalonia.
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