Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, his adviser Jaume Masferrer, the club’s CEO, Oscar Grau, and the head of legal services, Roman Gomez Ponti, have been arrested following a raid on the club’s offices on Monday, sources told ESPN .
A local police spokesman also confirmed to ESPN that “arrests are taking place, but we cannot give names. We are currently conducting an operation with officers from the financial crime unit.”
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Police arrived at the Barca offices to look for evidence in connection with the “Barcagate” social scandal and later made the arrests.
A year has passed since it was claimed that Barca, under that time, under Bartomeu, would have paid a third party company to disperse the former players, current players and presidential candidates on social networks.
Barca strongly denied the allegations and canceled his contract with I3 Ventures, the company behind the social media accounts.
An external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers subsequently removed the Catalan club from any wrongdoing and also found that Barca had not paid an inflated price for a number of services with I3, acquitting the club of any financial corruption.
However, police are continuing to look into the case, opening their own investigation last year. They first searched the offices of the Camp Nou club last June, looking for documents related to the accusations.
On Monday, the club’s employees were asked to leave the building, while the police returned again, looking for more evidence to help their investigation.
Bartomeu has resigned since then, although his resignation has nothing to do with the “Barcagate” scandal, and the club will elect a new president on March 7. Carles Tusquets plays the interim role.
The allegations were first made by a local radio station in February last year. Evidence was revealed that, in addition to Bartomeu’s defense, I3 was behind several Facebook accounts that had attacked people related to the club, including players Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, former captain Xavi Hernandez, former manager Pep Guardiola and presidential candidates Victor Font and Agusti Benedito.
Bartomeu and Barca immediately terminated the contract with I3 and denied any knowledge of the accounts. Bartomeu’s adviser, Masferrer, was later suspended after being held accountable for the club’s relationship with I3.
Masferrer later returned to his role working with Bartomeu, but no further internal action was taken following the publication of the external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers.