Aurelio De Laurentiis is under investigation for false accounting.. Rome’s prosecutor’s office has announced the closure of the file against the Napoli president over the sale of defender Kostas Manolas. The investigation is part of a series of alleged fictitious capital acquisitions involving other Italian clubs, who are accused of having inflated their accounts through shady or illegal activities.
L’accusa a De Laurentiis
The deal, overseen by prosecutors Lorenzo de Giudice and Giorgio Orano, concerns the transfer of Greek defender Kostas Manolas from Roma to Napoli in the summer of 2019. 36 million eurosGuinean midfielder, Amadou Diawara with a reverse route.
In December 2021, aged 30 and virtually out of the draft, the defender was sold to Olympiacos for €3 million. Fall in value 33 million over a period of two and a half years.
An operation that had already ended under the magnifying glass of the Capitoline prosecutor’s office on the Rome side, he investigated with six members of the administration before the current Friedkin ownership: former presidents James Pallotta and Mauro Baldessoni, Guido Fanga, Giorgio. Francia, Umberto Maria Ghandini and Francesco Malcannet.
The investigation, which closed in May, related to various offenses of false accounting and information manipulation in connection with the transfer. 12 playersin addition to the two already mentioned, for a total of 179 million euros: Gregoire Defrel, Riccardo Marchezza, Davide Fratessi, Niccolò Zaniolo, David Santon, Radja Nanggolan, Brian Cristian, Marco Tamminello, Leonardo Spinazzola and Luca Pellegrini.
According to the prosecutor’s system, the former administrators of the Giallorossi club, during the years analyzed by the investigators, “a series of Fictitious capital gains through player exchange transactions which appeared to be separate purchase and sale transactions and were therefore accounted for in violation of accounting principles.”
Estimated capital gains
The new charge against president Aurelio De Laurentiis will add to another line of investigation into alleged fictitious capital gains, linked to Napoli’s 2020 purchase of the Nigerian striker from Lille. Victor Osman.
As part of the same operation costing 71 million euros, the French club also paid approx. 20 million Cards for goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis (formerly of Udinese and Watford) for the Neapolitan club and three players from the Azurri youth department: Claudio Manzi, Ciro Palmieri and Luigi Liguori.
As indicated in Napoli’s financial statements as of June 30, 2021 Football and financeIn addition to the €5 million paid for the Greek goalkeeper, the other three players were valued with similar figures. From 4 to 7 million eurosA sum considered excessive compared to the market, for three youngsters (the first two were born in 2000 and the third in 1998) who have yet to start their careers at the highest level.
In 2021, Liguori said in an interview that he was not. Never been to Lille. And that “this was not an operation for us, for our future. It was for something else. Because of Napoli’s ‘mistake’ we burned. Because we knew nothing.”
After news of the closure of the investigation against Aurelio De Laurentiis, the Napoli president’s lawyers, Lorenzo Contrada and Fabio Fulgieri, announced that their clients would be ready to be heard by investigators. Clarify the whole matter“
On the football federation front, prosecutor Giuseppe Chinè has already requested documents from the Rome prosecutor’s office and is waiting to receive them to assess the situation. For the Osimhen case, Napoli and De Laurentiis have already been referred to April 1, 2022.
