Searches by the tax authorities will take place next Wednesday in the stadiums of Benfica, Sporting and FC Porto, CNN Portugal reports. Player transfers are at stake.
About 100 members of the Tax and Customs Administration and dozens of GNR soldiers are involved in the operation, the news channel reports. Benfica and Sporting have already confirmed the searches and cooperated with the authorities.
According to Correio da Manhã, house searches were also carried out at the home of Alexandre Pinto da Costa, a football agent and son of the president of FC Porto, as well as at Torre das Antas.
These steps will be related to the “Out of Game” operation triggered by documents accessed by the hacker Rui Pinto, the main defendant in the Football Leaks case, the newspaper writes. A process that has been going on for several years, involving companies in the world of football and likely involving crimes of qualified tax fraud and money laundering.
In the context of this “Out of the Game” operation, 47 suspects, 24 legal persons and 23 natural persons, including football players, police officers, lawyers and sports leaders, were formed after house searches in March 2020.
Updated
Source: DN
