Joan Laporta and ex-Barça executives summoned to testify as investigated parties in fraud case

A Barcelona district court has summoned the president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, and three other officials or former officials of the club to testify in a fraud case in which they are all being investigated.

The football officials are due in court on January 16.

The other three under investigation are the current vice-president of sports of the Catalan club, Rafael Yuste, the economist Xavier Sala i Martin, and the former director of TV3 and former general manager of Barça, Joan Oliver.

The plaintiff is a woman who in 2016 allegedly invested around €100,000 in two companies linked to the investigated parties with the promise of a high annual return of 6%, but only recovered €12,500.

Initially, the court had not admitted the complaint, but the Court of Appeal overturned the decision on a subsequent appeal.

This is the third case opened for alleged fraud against investors in the companies Core Store, from Barcelona, ​​and CSSB Limited, from Hong Kong, which has Joan Oliver as its legal representative.

Representatives of the two companies are also summoned to testify on January 16. All of the investigated parties have been part of the management of the companies at some point and sought investors to promote the football club Reus Deportiu, which Oliver had bought and was playing in the second division at the time, and to create a football academy in a Chinese club.

Earlier this year, the Barça president had to testify in a procedure for an alleged scam against a family that had won the lottery, who invested €2.4 million in an operation that turned out to be a failure. Laporta denied being involved in a scam.

In 2014, the new millionaires allocated the money to a subsidiary of a company that Laporta managed, an amount that for three years was supposed to yield 6% annually, and the investment or loan was never returned.

Laporta and other company managers were investigated for fraud, but the Barça president declared himself the victim of a smear campaign at the time.