The judge investigating the business of Luis Rubiales taking advantage of his position in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is also investigating former Barça player Gerard Piqué for the alleged crimes of unfair administration and corruption in business. Hence, throughout the investigation that began in July 2022, the magistrate has requested data from 89 bank accounts in which Piqué appears as the owner or authorized, as well as the analysis of 27 companies.
This is stated in the requirements issued to several banking entities, to which La Vanguardia has had access, among which are UBS, BBVA, Bankinter, Wealthprivat Bank, Singular Bank, Banco Inversis or Credit Suisse, among others.
The head of the Court of Instruction number 4 of Majadahonda (Madrid) has ordered the Civil Guard to collect all the information to be able to know all the movements, account data, owners or opening date. Regarding the accounts linked to Piqué, the judge demands information since January 1, 2019. She also wants to know authorized persons of the accounts, reports or internal analyzes as well as if there has been any alert from the Money Laundering Prevention Service ( SEPBLAC).
This information was requested a year ago, as stated in the judicial resolutions included in the summary. In addition to Piqué's, the instructor demands information from Rubiales, as well as from people she trusts linked to the Federation or her private businesses.
The judge wants to know the movements of the bank accounts given the suspicions that the former Spanish National Team player did business with Rubiales to bring the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Within the framework of this investigation, the judge also sent a rogatory commission to Andorra to request information from Mora Bank, about an account owned by FC Andorra Sade. According to the Rogatory Commission, which the Andorran authorities partially accepted, in order to bring the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, several contracts were signed between the RFEF - under the name of Rubiales - and the Saudi party, "with Gerard Piqué appearing among the signatories and beneficiaries , on behalf of Kosmos Holding SL, parent company of a group of companies, among which is Kosmos Football.”
What the investigators are trying to find out is to know the destination of the funds coming from the Kosmos Football account, in which "success commissions paid by Sela Sport Company (4 million euros per year) have been collected in consideration for the intermediation services provided in the negotiations with the RFEF for the dispute of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi territory.”
From the analysis carried out by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard of the bank account owned by cosmos Football, they conclude that the main source of income was intentional transfers of foreign currency from the Saudi entity Sela. They also note that the “immense majority” of the payments issued were intended for other companies in the Kosmos group.
The Tax Agency has verified that payments from Sela Sports Company to Kosmos have been declared, as well as the departure of part of these funds to Andorra, between 2019 and 2021. Given this information, the agents have once again requested more information from the Andorran authorities to expand the information on the accounts of Piqué's business holding company.
Investigators are also analyzing why Kosmos transferred money to the club FC Andorra in the amount of 5.3 million euros, on dates after Sela's transfers. For the Civil Guard, the money collected from Sela has largely gone to finance FC Andorra and transfer money to other accounts of the holding company. However, for now the payment to senior officials of the RFEF with that money has not been detected.
To continue with these investigations, investigators have taken into account the interrogation of Juan Rubiales as a witness on November 15, 2022, as former director of the president's cabinet, his nephew. He explained that there was a secret meeting between Rubiales and Piqué, with a Saudi political authority, who was later discovered to be from Sela.
The agreement was to celebrate the Super Cup for three seasons for 28.5 million euros. The agreement between Sela, RFEF and Kosmos was reflected in seven contracts. For this operation, Kosmos would receive a tax-free remuneration of 4 million euros.
