José María Enríquez Negreira, this Tuesday with his wife upon his arrival in the City of Justice in Barcelona to be examined by a forensic expert.Enric Fontcuberta (EFE)
If Joan Laporta is not under investigation in the Negreira case, it is not because he did not commit a crime, but only because the alleged crimes have expired. The judge investigating FC Barcelona’s millions in payments to former referee vice-president José María Enríquez Negreira has issued a warning to the current Barça president: “Laporta’s behavior is identical to that of the two subsequent presidents,” says the judge in relation to Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, who took office and who remain under investigation for bribery.
In a ruling rejecting Barça’s accusation in the case, Judge Joaquín Aguirre recalls that during Laporta’s first term at the helm of the club (2003-2010), “through the companies that they used as intermediaries, payments were also made to the Concurrent with his long tenure as number two on the Technical Arbitration Committee (CTA), Barça paid Negreira more than seven million euros for alleged technical advice for which there is no documentary evidence. Later, the club also paid his son Javier Enríquez for reports in which he analyzed the behavior of the referees who were supposed to whistle for Barça’s first team.
Aguirre warns that “at this stage of the proceedings” no crime has been attributed to Laporta, “not for reasons” related to the illegality of the acts committed during this first term, but because of “the application of the penal rules”. Recipe.” The offense of corruption in sport (which was initially attributed to the respondents) expires after five years, while in the case of bribery (which the judge now considers to be compatible with the facts under investigation) the statute of limitations can in some cases be 10 years. In any case, Laporta’s first term in office is outside this framework, as the first investigation by the public prosecutor’s office began in 2022.
Ethical accusation against the president
Outside of purely legal matters, the judge issues another warning to Laporta in the ethical area. Barça intends to initiate a private prosecution in the event of a crime committed by disloyal administration. The judge is of the opinion (as in June) that this is not possible because he would then also have to charge the other crimes and the club would then “indict itself”. Aguirre assures that the Barça company is committing “legal fraud” by faking an accusation and points to the president: “It is ethically unacceptable for Laporta to accuse presidents Rosell and Bartomeu of the crime of disloyal administration, although there is more than there are enough of them.” There are indications that “Laporta committed the same acts as subsequent presidents,” he emphasizes. And remember that it is Laporta who appoints the legal team that represents him in the Negreira case and that, as he repeats, he behaved “contrary to all ethics”.
In addition to Rosell and Bartomeu, the case is also being investigated by Enríquez Negreira, who visited the offices of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Catalonia (Imelec) this morning. The judge ordered him to be examined by a forensic expert to determine whether he was suffering from symptoms of dementia, as his defense had claimed. It will depend on this report whether 78-year-old Negreira will be considered fit to stand trial or, on the contrary, will be exonerated on medical grounds.
After Negreira’s money
In another order, also issued this Monday, the judge ordered various banking institutions to hand over all current account movements of Negreira and his companies since 2001, when he began receiving payments from Barça. The judge suspects that Barça tried to manipulate games in its favor by paying the former number two of Spanish referees and assumes that there was “systemic corruption” in the refereeing, but there is currently a lack of evidence to determine this. A few days ago, the Guardia Civil searched the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in search of clues.
The request to the banks is extensive. He wants seven different banking institutions, through the Guardia Civil, to clear the banking movements of a series of accounts related to Negreira, his son, various relatives of these accounts and the companies through which the Barça payments were processed. Since 2001, movements must include the “explicit identification of their counterparties, the determination of the origin and destination of the funds.” To find out whether the money paid to Negreira was used to buy the will of arbitrators, the judge ordered that information about the checks be provided and the people who cashed them identified. Data is also required on insurance, pension plans or funds taken out by the former arbitration manager and his family, as well as information on whether they had safes or safety deposit boxes at any of the companies at any time.
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