Twist in the “Barça Gate” affair.
This Monday morning, an operation was underway at the headquarters of FC Barcelona, six days before the elections for the presidency of the club, AFP learned from a spokesperson for the Catalan regional police.
This operation targets the resigning former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, according to several media.
"We are in the process of carrying out an operation at this very moment with agents of the department of economic crimes," the spokesperson told AFP, without giving further details, while police sources indicated that these were "searches".
This operation comes in the continuity of the "Barça Gate", a scandal in which Josep Bartomeu was directly involved last April.
He is suspected of having used a company to measure his own reputation before the previous presidential election, while defaming, via social networks, his opponents, such as Leo Messi or Gerard Piqué, or former presidents like Joan Laporta , candidate for the election next weekend.
Three other people arrested
It was then revealed that the club had spent one million euros with the company I3 Ventures.
The club is accused of dividing the payment into five installments of 198,000 euros to bypass the club's internal control and not have to submit them to the board for approval.
Josep Bartomeu had, in the process, resigned from the presidency.
According to El Independiente, a Spanish site in Madrid, in addition to Bartomeu, Óscar Grau, the general manager of the club, Román Gómez Pontí, head of legal services, as well as the manager Jaume Masferrer, have been arrested.
The former president is being held at his home, the other three suspects at the club's headquarters.
A previous operation had already been carried out by the Catalan police at Camp Nou last July.