The inclusion of the crime of bribery in the Negreira case could end up affecting the current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta. And so it has been. The investigating judge 1 of Barcelona, Joaquín Aguirre, has charged the top Barça leader by considering that the payments he made during his first term to José María Enríquez Negreira are not time-barred. The investigator understands that Laporta could have committed a crime of continuous bribery and therefore the period of prescription would encompass his first period at the head of the entity between 2008 and 2010. "The attributable events extend until the month of July 2008, so covers the previous FC Barcelona board" chaired by Joan Laporta, writes Aguirre. The judge starts counting ten years ago from the last invoice paid by Barça to Negreira, which was on July 17, 2018.
In an order issued this Wednesday, the judge agreed to extend the status of those under investigation to Joan Laporta and the members of his board of directors "who were integrated into the club's organizational chart and had effective responsibility in making the decision to make the alleged payments." illegal acts against Enríquez Negreira and his son". Laporta's accusation is added to the other two former presidents of the club who appear in the case, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. A few days ago the judge already warned Laporta that his past acts had been "illegal" and that his conduct had been "identical to that of subsequent presidents, but then he considered that his actions were prescribed.
Although no new evidence has appeared, from reading Barça's payments to Negreira the judge concludes that "the acts carried out by the investigated Enríquez Negreira had to benefit FC Barcelona to the detriment of the rest of the clubs in First Division or its rivals in the Copa del Rey. These acts could refer to biased referee appointments or to warnings (reprimands) made to the normally designated referees."
However, the incorporation of the crime of bribery in the investigation of the Negreira case has changed everything. At first, the Prosecutor's Office excluded Laporta in its complaint, estimating that his participation in the events was time-barred. Then, he understood that the criminal responsibility for the crimes of sports corruption and unfair administration had expired. However, the judge gave a new reading to the facts by estimating that Negreira, as a member of the Spanish Federation, could be considered for criminal purposes as a public official - despite the fact that the Federation is a private entity - and therefore considered that the payments from Barça may constitute bribery of a public official.
Already in its appeal, Barça reproached the magistrate for opening an investigation for bribery and demanded that he continue "under the investigation of corruption in sport" and not along the line of bribery. Barcelona warned that the new criminal classification, "far from constituting a sterile style exercise, may produce a very relevant impact on the course and investigative development of the process in relation to time periods and people investigated," the club regrets.
The judge in the Negreira case charged Barça and the rest of the people investigated with a continued crime of bribery on September 28. He issued an order in which he considered it proven that "the payments made by FC Barcelona to José María Enríquez Negreira satisfied the interests of the club" and that "they produced the arbitration effects desired by FC Barcelona."
