Treasury mega operation at Porto, Benfica and Sporting CP

The IRS, accompanied by GNR, is conducting searches this Wednesday in various parts of the country as part of a football player transfer fraud scheme. These are the largest tax searches ever, with more than 100 employees of the Internal Revenue Service involved.

The house of Alexandre Pinto da Costa, football agent and son of the President of FC Porto, as well as Torre das Antas in the city of Invicta, are being searched. Alexandre Pinto da Costa will be implicated in dozens of tax evasion deals.

The search also targets Benfica, Sporting CP and FC Porto’s legal services. Lisbon judges oversee searches in Luz and Alvalada.

As found out cminside the Estádio da Luz there are several divisions of the tax authorities.

Searches also take place in the homes of Ligue I footballers who are or have played for the great Portuguese footballers, so that a comparison can be made between the contracts held by the SAD and those held by the players to assess if there are discrepancies.

for what cm you know on BWe are talking about contracts between 2015 and 2020 at Enfica and contracts signed between 2015 and 2017 at Sporting, that is, during the stay of Luis Filipe Vieira and Bruno de Carvalho, respectively. In Porto, they concern the leadership of Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa.

At Sporting, the tax authorities check the transfers of seven players: Bass Dost, Naldo, Andre Pinto, Ruben Semedo, Battaglia, Beto Pimparel This scheme. Benfica are considering contracts with Chiquinho, Vlachimos This Gonzalo Guedes.

However, the Central Department of Investigations and Criminal Penalties (DCIAP) confirmed that more than six dozen searches were being carried out in the areas of Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Viana do Castelo, Aveiro and Setúbal. These searches cover “company properties including sports companies Sporting CP, SL and Benfica and FCPorto, legal and accounting offices, and several residences.”

At stake are alleged crimes of “qualified tax fraud, social security fraud and money laundering related to the establishment or renewal of sports employment contracts, commission payments and financial schemes involving intermediaries in these businesses, as well as the use of image rights.” .

The DCIAP also clarifies that the facts under investigation occurred between 2014 and 2022. “There are signs of illegal property, tax and social benefits totaling more than 58 million euros,” it says.

Operation Offside, which has been going on for several years, already has 47 defendants. This is the largest lawsuit in the history of the Portuguese tax authorities in the world of football.

Jorge Mendez and Gestifute are also involved in this process.

Recall that these processes were discovered by the hacker Rui Pinto. Over the past few years, Rui Pinto has cooperated with the investigation and agreed to open the files containing all these “secrets”.