The magistrate charges the son of the former arbitration leader and extends the crimes to money laundering, so the prescription lengthens
The judge of Barcelona Silvia López Mejías has expanded the investigation into the ‘Negreira case’ of corruption in sport and alleged unfair administration at the time when FC Barcelona was chaired by Joan Gaspart, but also at that of his successor Joan Laporta. Until now, the investigations covered from 2010 to 2020, when they were in charge of the Barça entity Sandro Rosell and later Josep María Bartomeu.
However, in a car in which he declares the secrecy of proceedings and accuses the son of the former arbitration leader Jose Maria Enriquez NegreiraJavier Enriquez Romero, the specific togada that the period of time to which the investigations will be extended will be from 2001, when the payments began, until, it affects, “the present moment”. That is to say, the totality of disbursements from FC Barcelona to the Negreira companies, which amount to 7.3 million euros. In the order, the judge also expands the crimes attributed and adds an alleged money laundering, in addition to decreeing the secrecy of the proceedings for a month. The crime of money laundering prescribes at 15 years, so the inquiries can be extended to the global payments made by Barça.
The sources familiar with the investigations consulted by this newspaper maintain that the judge has ordered the Civil Guard a series of investigative procedures, although the secret prevents knowing which ones. For now, the case only includes documents related to Bartomeu’s time and they were missing from Rosell’s (the togada has requested the organization chart of the club and the name of those responsible for some areas), but now evidence must be collected from the presidency of Gaspart and Laporta.
The new defendant
Negreira’s son and new defendant, Javier Enríquez, had carried out various reports for Barça and was summoned to testify by the prosecution in the proceedings that concluded with the presentation of a complaint in the courts. In his statement, he disassociated himself from the work of his father and presented reports that he had made for FC Barcelona as evidence. He was not included in the complaint, but his father, the former presidents of the Barça club Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Roselland two former directors of the entity. Now the judge considers that she participated in the business network.
The League of Javier Tebas, who is prosecuting the ‘Negreira case’, asked the judge in April to include Javier Enríquez in the investigation due to his links with the companies that collected from Barça because, in his opinion, there is a ” large table of evidence” from which his “active and necessary cooperation” would emerge. The suspicions are based on the report from the Tax Agency and on the relationship that this has had with referees whom he advised as a ‘coach’ and who whistled at the Barça club .
The plot connection
The employer maintains that the son of the former arbitration leader had a payroll and was a proxy for the business Dasnil 95the company in which he participated with his father, and which received millionaire payments from Barça, and highlights his connection with other companies in the plot, such as Soccercam, which is his and also received money from the club in the first stage of Joan Laporta, and Tresep 2014 SL, a company owned by former FC Barcelona director José Contreras, who died in 2022, who acted as an intermediary for the collection of some amounts.
The Treasury believes that one of the disbursements of Dasnil to Javier Enríquez is actually “disguised retribution.” In other words, according to the employer, this person “maintained a fluid and continuous relationship with the company he managed” (Dasnil). La Liga stresses that former executives of the accused Barca club recorded in their statement to the police that they had no relationship with the former referee Enríquez Negreira, but with his son. To demonstrate Javier Enríquez’s close relationship with the Spanish referees, LaLiga has also made available to the court a list with the money that he received from six Spanish referees for his coaching services.