The Udine Prosecutor’s Office have opened an investigation into Udinese regarding their purchase of Rolando Mandragora from Juventus in 2018.
A report from Il Messaggero Veneto via TMW details how the investigators believe that the Friulian club may have carried out false accounting, to the exercise of the functions of the supervisory authorities and fraudulent declarations using false financial documents. A case has been opened by public prosecutor Lucia Terzariol.
On November 3, the Guardia di Finanza – Italy’s financial police – searched Udinese’s headquarters and recovered various documents. Club president Franco Soldati, his partner Stefano Campocci and the club as a whole have been registered as suspects.
The investigators have accused Udinese of false accounting in regard to their registration and subsequent amortization of Mandragora after his €20m purchase from Juventus on July 26, 2018. There are also concerns regarding the agreement with the Old Lady for his return two years later.
Furthermore, Udinese are suspected of having evaded taxes of around €1.6m in their balance sheets of March 2020, having registered his amortisation fees of €6.6m, which investigators believe are ‘fictitious passive elements’ due to the ‘substantial economic nullification’ of the deal with Juventus.
Udine chief prosecutor Massimo Lia discussed the investigation into the club, saying: “A necessary activity, after our colleagues in Turin sent us the documents of our territorial jurisdiction.
“The searches served to acquire the data necessary to understand how, accounting, the deal has been managed and thus ascertain whether and possibly which crimes to contest.”
Soldati’s lawyer expressed his confidence that his client and the club acted correctly, stating: “The transfer of sports rights is regular, and all the accounting entries reflect money movements that actually occurred.”