the operations under accusation – Corriere.it

The president of Lazio Claudio Lotito and the sporting director Igli Tare are under investigation and the other manager Angelo Fabiani. Also targeted is a general of the Guardia di Finanza, Ugo Marchetti and the former sole director of the Salernitana Luciano Corradi. Also investigated on the other side of the Tiber: the current owners of the Rome Dan and Ryan Friedkin, former patron James Pallotta and, among others, former executives Mauro Baldissoni and Umberto Gandini. All “to be considered presumed innocent in view of the current stage of the proceedings”.

The capital gains scandal therefore spread to Lazio, Salernitana and Rome.
However, two separate investigations, with 2 proxies at work: Tivoli (for Lazio and Salernitana) and Rome (for the Giallorossi). Only one goal: to clarify the balance sheets. The experts of the economic and financial unit of the Gdf thus knocked on the doors of club managers and administrators. The hypothesis is that they made profits by manipulating the accounting records, in short, keeping silent about the true financial situation. Hypothesis denied by Lazio: «We are a crystal house in which all the documents are in place and available to the authorities». Salernitana points out: «The operations precede the change of ownership». There are 4 seasons under observation: they range from 2017 to 2021. The overvaluation in the budget of some players would have given way to “issues of false invoices”. For example, monitor the prices of Akpa-Akpro, Sprocati, Casasola and others among the various market links. As can be read in the search decree, the heads of Salernitana and those of Lazio “indicated in the annual tax returns fictitious passive elements (“inflated” costs) as well as making the respective disproportionate purchase values ​​of the players appear in the company financial statements, thus distorting the value of the club’s assets.

The two clubs had to make “pre-contractual negotiations”, “written agreements and contracts”, “agreements between the clubs and individual players” (chats included) and the bank documentation relating to the sales available to the investigators. The question is: how did the official price of the players and the method of payment come about? The only exception is Lotito who, as a senator, benefits from different treatment (another procedure will be needed) and was able to keep his iPhone. PCs and tablets were confiscated from the other suspects. The documentation will serve to “ascertain whether the athletes were actually paid and for the amount formally declared, as well as to exclude the existence of hypothetical fictitious capital gains and false invoices with consequent crimes of false corporate communications”.

Now it is a question of studying the acquired documentation but it is clear, from the clarifications (black on white in the search order) that much is expected from the mobile phones of the suspects. Reference to the format «including any… chat messaging» implies an evaluation. Various accounting items under accusation: from “players’ registration rights” to “staff costs and management costs of players’ registration rights”.

As far as Rome is concerned, however, the market negotiations with Sassuolo are under observation (Defrel purchased, Marchizza and Frattesi sold), the Juventus (Spinazzola/Luca Pellegrini), Atalanta (Cristante/Tumminello) and the Verona (Kumbulla for Cetin, Chancellors and Diaby).