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Parma president arrested in anti-money laundering operation

Xinhua, March 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

The president of Italy's Parma football team, Giampiero Manenti, was arrested on Wednesday along with 21 others for alleged money laundering and embezzlement.

The operation, ordered by prosecutors in Rome, was carried out by Italian financial police in several cities across the country. Some 60 premises were also raided, including the State General Accounting Department in Rome and the headquarters of the Parma club.

All people arrested were variously charged with embezzlement, criminal association, money laundering, use of illicit funds, and computer fraud, prosecutor Michele Prestipino said a press conference.

Manenti was charged with attempted use of illicit funds.

He is thought to have received about 4.5 million euros from those involved in the alleged criminal organization, "which included people from Sicily, Calabria, and Campania well connected to mafia-type organizations", an investigator said.

According to prosecutors, Parma president was looking for fresh resources in order to deal with his club's financial deficit. The alleged criminal group tried to make the required money available to Manenti through "a large amount of illicit funds loaded on to cloned credit cards".

This operation was not successful due to technical problems, and was meanwhile brought to light by financial police officers during a three-month-long investigation, prosecutors added.

"The criminal group, which was mainly dealing with computer fraud and recycling activities, managed to transfer 10 million U.S. dollars and 30 million euros from a major Swiss bank to other bank accounts on February 10th and February 13th, 2015, respectively," Prestipino said.

Those arrested committed crimes aggravated by the use of mafia methods in at least one case.

Parma club is facing a financial crisis, with debts worth over 100 million euros.

Manenti, who owns the Slovenia-based Mapi Group Company, purchased the club from Albanian Rezart Taci early in February with the promise of settling its financial situation and paying the overdue salaries to its players and staff.

Until his arrest on Wednesday, he had been unable to find a solution to put the club's finances in order.

Parma is currently playing in Italian Serie A soccer league, but the financial crisis has forced the team to miss two matches of the season in February.

The club might be declared bankrupt in a court hearing scheduled in Parma on Thursday. Endi