Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, his adviser Jaume Masferrer, the club’s CEO, Oscar Grau, and the head of legal services, Roman Gómez Ponti, have been arrested after a raid on the club’s offices on Monday, according to have confirmed sources to ESPN.
A local police spokesman also confirmed to ESPN that “arrests are taking place but we cannot give names. We are currently in the process of conducting an operation with officers from the financial crime unit.”
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Police arrived at the Barca offices to look for evidence of the “Barcagate” social media scandal and later made the arrests.
A year ago it was alleged that Barça, then under Bartomeu’s management, was paying a third-party company to dirty former players, current players and presidential candidates on social media.
Barça strongly denied the allegations and terminated the contract with I3 Ventures, the company behind the social media accounts.
Later, an external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers cleared the Catalan club of any faults and also found that Barça did not pay an inflated price for various services with I3, absolving the club of any corruption at the financial level.
However, police continue to study the case as it opened its own investigation last year. They first attacked the club’s Camp Nou offices last June in search of documents related to the allegations.
On Monday, club employees were asked to leave the building as police returned, looking for more evidence to help with their investigation.
Bartomeu has resigned since then, although his resignation had nothing to do with the “Barcagate” scandal, and the club will elect a new president on March 7. Carles Tusquets holds the position on a temporary basis.
The complaints were first filed by a local radio station last February. Evidence was revealed that, in addition to defending Bartomeu, I3 was behind several Facebook accounts that had attacked people related to the club, including players Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, former captain Xavi Hernandez, former director Pep Guardiola and the president the candidates Victor Font and Agusti Benedito.
Bartomeu and Barca terminated the contract with I3 immediately and denied any knowledge of the accounts. Later, Masferrer, Bartomeu’s advisor, was suspended after being responsible for the club’s relationship with I3.
Later, Masferrer returned to his role working alongside Bartomeu, and no further internal action was taken following the publication of the external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers.