São Paulo board probed by police for club embezzlement scandal | OneFootball

Definitely, you, the fan who wants to follow news about São Paulo, increasingly need to look less at the sports pages and more at the police news. Once again, club officials have been cited as being investigated in criminal cases.

A report published by the newspaper ‘O Estado de S. Paulo‘ revealed the existence of a Civil Police inquiry investigating an alleged money diversion scheme in São Paulo, based on an anonymous tip. However, the text does not clearly state what the irregularities would be nor does it describe what would characterize illegality in the analyzed contracts. The investigation focuses on the company Off Side Logística Esportiva.

According to the investigation, the suspicion is that funds may have been diverted through agreements between the club and Off Side. The inquiry mentions São Paulo football department officials and points to former director Carlos Belmonte Sobrinho, former deputy director Nélson Marques Ferreira, and executive Rui Costa as people who may have obtained “irregular gains,” even though the company has been working with São Paulo for about twenty years.

In a report, delegate Tiago Fernando Correia states that “the facts, once nebulous, have taken on the contours of an apparent criminal scheme” and that “the architecture of the facts signals the existence of a criminal mechanism,” as well as a “mosaic indicating that the club may have been systematically harmed,” but the report does not detail specific contracts nor explain how these mechanisms would have worked.

Off Side denies any irregularities. In response, it stated that it has been operating since 2000 in the sports logistics market, always with formal contracts, effective execution of services, regular issuance of invoices, and “absolute operational and financial transparency.” It also maintains that its operations are restricted to land logistics. Based in Rio de Janeiro, the company serves clubs like Palmeiras, Santos, Flamengo, and São Paulo itself.

São Paulo, on the other hand, reported that Off Side was hired only for specific services, without a continued contract or exclusivity, with services formalized through invoices, without identifying irregularities. Rui Costa declared, through his lawyer, that he has not yet had access to the full inquiry, but that he will provide clarifications and trusts in proving his innocence, emphasizing that the company was already working with the club before his arrival in 2021. Belmonte's defense stated that accusations without evidential support are being used to create speculative narratives, highlighting the timing of their emergence, after his departure from the club and his expression of interest in running for presidency this year.

The inquiry has called on the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) to analyze the financial movements of Off Side and its partners over the past five years, while the report recalls a recent issue in the company's relationship with Corinthians.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.