Tax Authority conducts searches in several SAD. Benfica, Sporting and FC Porto are targeted
More than 200 inspectors from the Tax Authority will be collecting information on contracts with players and the payment of commissions to sports agents.
The tax authorities are carrying out searches of several SAD sports, this Wednesday, the Correio da Manhã newspapers advances. Among those targeted by the Tax Authority (TA) are the SADs of Benfica, Sporting and FC Porto.
The purpose of these searches will be gathering information on contracts signed with players and the commission payments to sports agents. In the field in the operation that also covers house searches and law firms, there will be more than 200 inspectors, accompanied by elements of GNR and several prosecutors of DCIAP.
The newspaper explains that this is an investigation which began in 2015, and which targets crimes of tax fraud and money laundering.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the Tax Authority (AT) have also elected priority targets in this first phase of the operation on the ground, which includes searches of FC Porto, Benfica, Sporting, Braga, Guimarães, Marítimo, Estoril, Portimonense and other clubs. Namely, seizure of documents related to millionaire businesses of players, in the office of Carlos Osório de Castro, lawyer of Cristiano Ronaldo. Jorge Mendes is another of those targeted: the process foresees searches of the offices of Gestifute, in Oporto and Lisbon, and the two residences of the businessman in Oporto. Images collected this morning by CMTV allowed to verify the presence of the authorities near the businessmen’s residence in Oporto.
The houses of Pinto da Costa (president of FC Porto), Luís Filipe Vieira (president of Benfica), Frederico Varandas (president of Sporting CP), António Salvador (president of Braga), the players Casillas, Jackson Martinez, Maxi Pereira, Danilo Pereira are other targets in the investigation.
