Juventus, here are the prosecution’s accusations against Andrea Agnelli

1 December 20221 year ago babelfish

Juventus, what emerges from the "notice to the suspect and the defender of the conclusion of the preliminary investigations" from the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office on Andrea Agnelli, Pavel Nedved and others. The article by Emanuela Rossi

A real earthquake is what was caused at Juventus by the closure of the proceeding opened in 2021 by the Turin prosecutor's office. The company, whose board of directors resigned en bloc last Monday (at the input of John Elkann, number one of Exor) , is under investigation for irregularities in the financial statements and for false communications to the market.

But let's see what are the disputes contained in the "notice to the suspect and the defender of the conclusion of the preliminary investigations", the text of which was read by Startmag .

THE SUSPECTS

In the meantime, let's start with the people informed by the prosecutor.

The group is led, needless to say, by Andrea Agnelli (president) and Pavel Nedved (vice president). Then there are Fabio Paratici (chief football officer) and Marco Giovanni Re (chief financial officer), Stefano Bertola (manager and CFO pro tempore) and Stefano Cerato (manager with strategic responsibilities). The deed is also addressed to Cesare Gabasio (lawyer and legal advisor) and to the three members of the board Maurizio Arrivabene, Francesco Roncaglio and Enrico Vellano. And again: the Juventus Football Club, Paolo Piccatti (president of the board of statutory auditors), Nicoletta Paracchini and Silvia Lirici (standing auditor), Stefania Boschetti and Roberto Grossi (legal auditor).

IRREGULARITIES IN THE 2019-2020-2021 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

One conduct that occurs, according to the prosecutor, is false accounting.

In the press release of 20 September 2019 and in the financial statements, reports or other corporate communications addressed to shareholders or the public, the draft financial statements as at 30 June 2019 closed with revenues of 621.5 million and with a loss of 39.9 million. In reality, however, the suspects "disseminated false news about the equity, economic and financial situation" causing an alteration in the price of the shares listed on the Stock Exchange's Electronic Stock Exchange. In particular, “Capital gains from the sale of players' rights” of approximately €49.7 million are recorded in the financial statements, which made it possible to reduce the loss from €84.5 million and to present positive shareholders' equity of over €31.2 million rather than a negative 13.3 million.

Same the following year. In the press release of 18 September 2020 and in the financial statements, reports or other corporate communications addressed to shareholders or the public, the draft financial statements as at 30 June 2020 – as amended following the consensual termination of the sports performance contract with Gonzalo Higuain – show revenues of 573.4 million and a loss of 89.7 million thanks to "Capital gains from the sale of players' rights": 78 million thanks to "exchange" operations, over 14.6 million thanks to the transfer to Borussia Dortmund of Emre Can and 3.813 million for Simone Muratore's transfer to Atalanta. Furthermore, the amount of more than 62.2 million has been omitted to show in the income statement under the item "Registered personnel". In this way there is a lower operating loss of over 89.6 million instead of 236.7 million and a shareholders' equity of 239.2 million instead of more than 47.5 million.

Same conduct in 2021. The prosecutor indicates the press release of 17 September 2021 and financial statements, reports or other corporate communications directed to shareholders or the public in which a draft budget as at 30 June 2021 closed with revenues of 480.7 million is presented and loss of 209.9 million. In the income statement, €28.3 million is shown in the item “Proceeds from players' rights management” and the amount of €27.5 million is omitted, however, under the item “Registered personnel”, thus reporting a lower loss for the year of €209.5 million. million instead of over 222.4 million and positive shareholders' equity of 28.8 million instead of a negative one of almost 176 million.

THE "WAGE MANEUVER"

Another chapter concerns the so-called "salary maneuver". With a price sensitive press release of 28 March 2020, false news about the equity, economic and financial situation of the company is disseminated – according to the prosecutor. In particular, there is talk of an agreement with the players and first-team coach (Massimiliano Allegri) which "provides for a reduction in compensation for an amount equal to the monthly salaries of March, April, May and June 2020" with "positive economic and financial effects for approximately 90 million on the 2019/2020 financial year”. Instead, the agreement reached – made through private agreement not made public signed by the president Agnelli and by Giorgio Chiellini, then captain of the team – "provides for the renunciation of a single month's salary, with certain and unconditional recovery of three months' salary in the following seasons regardless of the resumption of football activity and the player's transfer to third-party clubs”, with “consequent positive economic and financial effects, at most, for only 22 million”.

VAT EVASION

Then there is the chapter of unpaid value added tax. For the year 2018, in the VAT return, fictitious passive elements are indicated for 127,049.18 euros with a consequent VAT "unduly deducted" for 27,950.82 euros. For the following year, on the other hand, the same mechanism is used for fictitious passive elements equal to 604,098.36 euros with a consequent unduly deducted VAT equal to 132,901.64 euros. For 2020, again, the same mechanism: fictitious elements equal to 732,049.18 euros and consequent unduly deducted VAT equal to 161,050.82 euros. For 2021 the figures were equal, respectively, to 525,000 euros and 115,500 euros.

FALSE COMMUNICATIONS TO CONSOB

The accusations by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office also concern the communications owed by the Juventus Football Club, an entity subject to the supervision of Consob and listed on the Ftse Italia All Share, to the same commission. Like the one sent last April in which – the prosecutor reports – references were omitted "to the signing in the period April-May 2021 of multiple private agreements concerning 16 registered players and containing unconditional obligations to pay salaries subject to 'waiver/reduction' also in the event of registration of the player in favor of a third club, for a total of 63.68 million".

"The false corporate communications – reads the judicial document – and the consequent obstacle to Consob's supervisory functions made it possible to conceal the erosion of the share capital, already completed in the financial statements as at 30 June 2019, and to unduly postpone the corporate activity thus obtaining a significant profit, since Juventus Football Club did not adopt or in any case effectively implement organizational and management models suitable for preventing crimes of the type that occurred, relating, in particular, to investments in the sports area and the establishment of the sale and purchase values of players' rights".

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/juventus-ecco-le-accuse-della-procura-contro-andrea-agnelli/ on Thu, 01 Dec 2022 09:36:03 +0000.