Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was questioned today as part of an investigation into alleged false accounting in the Victor Osimhen deal.
When the Partenopei signed the Nigerian striker back in September 2020, the deal was valued at €76,356,819, which included the apparent market value of four players who made the switch to Lille as part of the transfer.
The market value for these players total around €20m, breaking down as follows: Ciro Palmieri -€7,026,349, Orestis Karnezis – €5,128,205, Luigi Liguori – €4,071,247 and Claudio Manzi – €4,021,762. Investigators allege that these market values were inflated to help Napoli’s books.
De Laurentiis questioned over Osimhen deal
Calciomercato.com details how Napoli president De Laurentiis arrived at the FIGC prosecutor’s office in Rome today accompanied by his lawyer Fabio Fulgeri, where he was subjected to around 90 minutes of questioning by deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini as part of the investigation into false accounting.
Liguori spoke out about the situation back in 2021, adding fuel to the fire, saying: “It wasn’t a deal (Osimhen, ed.) done for us, for our futures. It was for something else. We got pushed out of Napoli with ‘guilt’. Because we didn’t know anything.”
Napoli released an official statement addressing De Laurentiis’ visit to the FIGC prosecutor’s office today, commenting: “Aurelio De Laurentiis requested and obtained to be questioned by the Public Prosecutors of the Rome Prosecutor’s Office in the context of the ongoing investigations for the sale of the footballer Victor Osimhen.”