Spanish Prosecutor wants Neymar charged with fraud

MADRID, June 7 (Reuters) – Spanish public prosecutors want

Brazil captain Neymar to face charges of fraud and corruption over his transfer to Barcelona from Santos three years ago.

Both clubs have come under fire for the way the transfer was completed in 2013 with several investigations carried out in Spain and Brazil.

State Prosecutor Jose Perals Calleja on Tuesday filed preliminary proceedings to Spain’s high court for Neymar, his father-cum-agent Neymar Da Silva Santos, former Barcelona president Sandro Rossell and ex-Santos president Odilio Rodrigues to answer charges of fraud and corruption.

Neymar’s mother, Nadine Gonçalves, who is a 50 percent shareholder of the family company N&N Consolatory Esportiva e Empresarial Ltda, is also named as having financially benefited from the alleged corruption.

The latest investigation relates to an official complaint made by the Brazilian investment group DIS, which owned 40 percent of Neymar’s sporting rights when the player’s transfer to Barca went ahead.

DIS claimed it received less money than it was entitled to from the transfer as Barca concealed the real fee. Barca declared that they had spent 57.1 million euros on the player while Perals claims that the true fee was 83 million.

“They did so due to a strategic plan to control expenses to reduce the debt and because the (Barcelona) board of directors had already fixed a cap (of 70 million euros) for signings (for the 2013-14 campaign),” Perals said.

Barcelona and Neymar have denied any wrongdoing.

According to Perals, DIS should be compensated with 3.2 million euros.

In February, Neymar, his parents, Rosell, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu and other Santos officials all appeared in a Barcelona court to give evidence relating to the same transfer.

The case was stalled when Audiencia Nacional judge Jose de La Mata requested both the defense and prosecuting teams to reformulate their submissions to a Barcelona court, which the club had requested in an appeal.

(Reporting by Adriana Garcia, editing by Adrian Warner)