Barçagate: former president Josep Maria Bartomeu is arrested

BARCELONA — The Barçagate plot uncovered almost a year ago led to the arrest on Monday of former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and the club’s CEO Òscar Grau, the head of legal services Román Gómez Ponti and the president’s former personal advisor, Jaume Masferrer, as part of the investigation carried out by the justice system.

The Mossos squad of the economic fraud area, the Catalan officers, arrived early in the morning at the club’s offices to carry out several searches in various offices, prohibiting the entry of any person, including the people working here who had not yet arrived, and not giving permission for those who were in the building to leave the premises, isolating several workers who had their work equipment confiscated while various material was seized.

Parallel to the intervention in the offices of the institution, another brigade of the Catalan police moved to Bartomeu’s home, where he was arrested after the former president had contact with his lawyer as soon as he was transferred to the police station to testify, probably on Tuesday.

The head of Court 13 of the Barcelona High Court, Alejandra Gil, decided in mid-February to continue with the investigations under the secrecy of summary, warning that testimonial evidence should be received after already in September “indications of corruption” were noticed in the invoices that were split below 200,000 euros to avoid passing any control. In fact, the judge had already warned that she was not finding the previous contribution by the club, a problem that caused the action of this Monday.

The audit launched by Bartomeu’s board ruled out any culpability on its part, resolving only the employment sanction (and subsequent dismissal) of the head of compliance, Noelia Romero, after a time of six executives (Emili Roussaud, Enrique Tombas, Silvio Elias, Josep Pont, Maria Teixidor and Jordi Calsamiglia) resigned in what was the beginning of the scandal.

Increasingly guilty through a motion of censure initiated against him, Bartomeu managed to resign from the presidency, along with his board of directors, defending his work at the head of the team and convinced of having acted “clean” in compliance with even the strictest legality in the case. This has finally led to his arrest.