ZCZC
BSP-26
FBL-ESP-LIGA-ARG-MESSI
Spain court dismisses fraud case against Messi
MADRID, Sept 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s National Court on Monday said
it had dismissed a complaint against Barcelona’s Lionel Messi filed by a
former employee of the Argentine footballer’s foundation, who had accused him
of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
In dismissing the case, the judge wrote that the complaint “was based on
an account put together from stories in the press, without bringing even a
single element that was personally and directly known” by the plaintiff.
The complaint had been filed in June by Federico Rettori, an Argentine
national living in Majorca who formerly worked for Messi’s charity.
In it, he named the Barcelona striker, the charity, his father Jorge and
brother Rodrigo and “all the people, as yet unidentified, who in one form or
another administered or managed the funds at the Leo Messi Foundation,” the
document said.
He claimed that funds received by the foundation which “should have been
directed to social causes” instead went “towards various private activities
or bank accounts that differed from those that were declared by the
foundation”.
Last year, Rettori filed suit in Argentina on similar grounds. According
to a judicial source, it prompted the opening of a preliminary investigation
but so far, neither Messi nor his father have been charged.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1815HRS