Benfica Lisbon leaders indicted for tax fraud

At the Stadio de la Luz in Lisbon, July 14.

Portuguese football has not finished with tax evasion cases. Tuesday, July 14 in the evening, the management of Benfica Lisbon confirmed that its president, Luis Filipe Vieira, the administrator Domingos Soares de Oliveira, as well as the company that manages the club and that which owns its stadium have been indicted by the courts for aggravated tax fraud. They are suspected of having injured the tax authorities to the tune of 600,000 euros in the years 2016 and 2017.

Following press information, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic confirmed on Tuesday, “The existence of an investigation (…) relating to facts likely to constitute an offense of tax fraud”, without however specifying the names of the persons and companies under investigation.

According to the Portuguese media, the suspicions of justice relate to payments in the amount of 1.8 million euros paid to an IT provider for services that have never been rendered.

At the beginning of March, Benfica Lisbon had already been targeted by suspicions of tax fraud. It was then an investigation into player transfers. The capital’s club was not the only one to be worried, however: FC Porto and Sporting and Braga were also the target of searches carried out by a hundred tax inspectors and 180 gendarmes, led by fifteen magistrates in “Various football clubs, among their leaders, in law firms and in intermediary agents”, according to the Portuguese prosecution.

This “Offside Operation” on “Cases of professional football carried out from 2015 and which would have involved actions intended to avoid tax payments due to the Portuguese State”, according to the prosecution, had resulted in the indictment of 24 companies and 23 people, including players, agents or intermediaries, lawyers and sports managers.

Read also “Offside operation”, a major justice sweep against the big Portuguese football clubs

The World with AFP

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here