Fabio Paratici is among the 11 people recommended for trial in the investigation for alleged capital gains and false accounting involving Juventus, but what role does the Tottenham Hotspur’s director have in the case?
Paratici worked at Juventus for 11 years, first as the club’s sporting director, reporting directly to CEO Beppe Marotta and then as the Chief Football Officer once Marotta left the club in October 2018.
He is among the 11 people recommended for trial in the investigation for false accounting involving his ex-club.
Within five days, the judge at the preliminary hearing must set a date for the hearing, after which the same judge will decide whether the matter goes to trial or is dismissed.
Paratici was directly in charge of transfers with alleged inflated values, completed to balance the books, according to investigators.
A notebook belonging to Paratici’s successor Federico Cherubini was seized by Guardia Di Finanza – Italy’s Financial Police – in 2021.
Cherubini allegedly wrote that capital gains made by Paratici would give the club ‘immediate benefit’, becoming a financial burden long-term.
Today’s edition of La Gazzetta Dello Sport reports Cherubini admitted during a conversation recorded by investigators in July 2021 that Paratici had pushed a ‘lawful method too far’ referring to transfers with inflated values.
According to the same report, Paratici justified his actions by saying that registering ‘four or eight [million] for a swap deal’ would ‘change nothing’ as players’ values are difficult, if not impossible, to prove.
The investigation could also concern Atalanta and Genoa, two of the Serie A clubs who have been mostly involved in swap deals with Juventus in the last few years.
Paratici signed Dejan Kulusevski from La Dea for €44m in January 2020 and sent Cristian Romero to Bergamo six months later after signing the Argentinean centre-back from Genoa.
According to the report, investigators believe Juventus did not register over €70m in their balance sheet by using inflated transfer values, hidden payments to players and false invoices with football agents.