|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In a shocking case of attempted fraud, FC Barcelona narrowly avoided losing £1 million to a scammer pretending to be Pini Zahavi, the agent who facilitated Robert Lewandowski’s transfer to the club. This revelation came through an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), in collaboration with outlets such as Cadena Ser and Der Standard.
The scam unfolded shortly after Barcelona secured a high-profile transfer for Polish striker Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich in July 2022. A few days later, the club received an email that appeared to come from Zahavi, requesting a payment of €1 million (approximately £1 million) to be made to an account in Cyprus. The payment was supposedly for a lawyer named Michael Gerardus Hermanus Demon.
Despite red flags, such as the email originating from an unfamiliar address and the payment being directed to a different recipient, Barcelona initiated the transfer. However, the Bank of Cyprus flagged the transaction as suspicious and blocked the payment.
The fraud attempt was uncovered in the spring of 2023 after the Spanish radio show “Que t’hi jugues,” which covers FC Barcelona news, obtained the fraudulent email and shared it with OCCRP. Sources with insider knowledge of Barcelona confirmed that the club had proceeded with the transfer, but the Cypriot bank’s compliance officer halted it, suspecting the account’s legitimacy.
Demon, the supposed account holder, claimed his identity had been stolen, stating he had no knowledge of the account or the payment request. “I don’t know anything about this, and I don’t have a bank account in Cyprus. Unfortunately, I was a victim of identity fraud,” Demon told investigators. Zahavi also confirmed he had not made any such payment request and thanked a Barcelona director for contacting him to verify the email, which ultimately helped prevent the fraudulent transaction.
Although Barcelona acknowledged the incident, the club chose not to file a formal complaint with the Catalan police. A spokesperson reassured that no money was lost, as the bank had successfully blocked the transfer.
This incident mirrors a similar scam from 2018, when Italy’s Lazio was tricked into paying €2 million to fraudsters posing as Feyenoord representatives after the transfer of defender Stefan de Vrij. Financial expert Kieran Maguire, author of The Price of Football, commented that “with so much money involved in football transfers, there will always be those looking to take advantage.”
