Recently, the National Court has issued its Judgment No. 14/2019, dated April 24, by which it acquits Alexandre Rosell Feliú (aka “Sandro Rosell”), businessman and former president of Futbol Club Barcelona between 2010 and 2014, of the crimes of money laundering and criminal group for which he had been accused, and likewise the Court acquits other individuals who had also been accused of the same crimes.
The specific facts that served as the basis for the accusation of Mr. Rosell Feliú, consisted in that he allegedly headed a complex network of companies that allegedly allowed Ricardo Terra Teixeira, president of the Brazilian Football Confederation between 1989 and 2012, to pocket 19.9 million euros in illegal commissions for the television rights contracts of 24 friendly matches of the Brazilian national soccer team and for the sponsorship agreement signed in 2011 by Nike with the Brazilian federation and for which Mr. Rosell Feliú allegedly received 12 million euros as an intermediary. Rosell allegedly received 12 million euros as an intermediary.
The Prosecutor’s Office initially requested a total prison sentence of 11 years for the aforementioned Mr. Rosell as well as a fine of almost 60 million Euros, for the commission of a crime of money laundering of art. 301, and a crime of criminal group of art. 570 ter 1, b) of the Criminal Code, although in the act of the oral trial, in his definitive conclusions, the Prosecutor requested a sentence of 6 years imprisonment in total (4 years for the first crime, and 2 years for the second), maintaining the request for a fine for the same amount indicated.
Mr. Rosell Feliú, who in his court statement as defendant denied the facts he was accused of and has always maintained that he has never received any type of commission “neither legal nor illegal”, had spent a total of 643 days in pre-trial detention, which exceeds the average of the usual time spent in pre-trial detention.
The Magistrates of the Audiencia Nacional understand in their sentence that the Prosecutor’s Office has incurred in some assessment errors in relation to the network of companies and operations that would have been carried out and in which, besides Mr. Rosell, the also accused Mr. Joan Besolí Ribalta and Pedro Andrés Ramos Gonzáles, among others, would have participated, and from the facts that they declare proven, they understand that the commission of a crime of money laundering in the operations effectively carried out by Mr. Rosell does not arise.
Specifically, the Magistrates of the National Court approach the analysis of the evidence from two points of view, according to the thesis put forward by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and indicate: “In any case, the issue will be approached, analyzing the evidence from the two points of view, that is, on the one hand, in relation to what is called the alleged loan, and, on the other hand, in relation to the circulation of the money through the Andorran accounts (…)advancing that we do not see laundering in either of the two routes.”
Thus, specifically, in the “analysis of the evidence” section of the Judgment, the Court states in its opinion that: “…we consider that the evidence presented is not sufficient to show the money laundering of which it is accused…”.
And further on the Judgment concludes that: “In short, by discarding the AILANTO, CBF, NIKE operation in the terms proposed by the M.F., has led us not to assume the circulation of those 5.000. 5,000,000 through the Andorran accounts and the participation in the withdrawals of that amount attributed to Mr. BESOLÍ and Mr. RAMOS, hence, as we have said in the proven facts, in the management of this operation, these two defendants had nothing to do with it, because they were not involved in it, and if this has been because we have not found criminal reproach in the circulation from the time they enter until they leave the control of Mr. ROSELL, the ultimate consequence must be that, also, in relation to this operation there must be a pronouncement of acquittal for these three defendants. ”
All this leads to the acquittal of Mr. Rosell and 5 other defendants.
On July 3, 2019, the Appeals Chamber of the Audiencia Nacional dismissed the appeal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and confirmed the acquittal judgment of April 24, 2019, which became final when the Public Prosecutor’s Office decided not to file an appeal in cassation before the Supreme Court. Thus, the acquittal of Sandro Rosell became final.
You can download the complete judgment by clicking on the following link: Ruling-Case-Rosell
