Neymar To Stand Trial After Losing Appeal On Corruption Charges

Barcelona striker Neymar Jr. will stand trial on fraud and corruption charges after Spain’s High Court on Monday turned down the Brazilian’s appeal on charges relating to his move from Santos to Camp Nou in 2013.

Along with Neymar, Barcelona, his former club Santos and his family company N&N will all stand trial after a complaint was filed by Brazilian investment group DIS.

“Santos FC, Barcelona FC, Neymar, his mother Nadine Goncalves and N&N, the family company, have lost their appeals to have charges of fraud and corruption dropped,” the Spanish High Court said in a statement.

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Ever since the 25-year-old Brazilian striker made his big money move to Barcelona in 2013, there has been a lot of controversies surrounding his transfer as it was never made clear how much the club actually paid for him and former Barcelona President Sandro Rosell and current chief Josep Maria Bartomeu also have charges filed against them.

Barcelona originally published the transfer figure as 57.1 million euros with 40 million of that given to the player`s family. But Spanish authorities believe the true transfer figure was at least 83 million euros.

DIS received just 6.8 million euros from the transfer with the investment company claiming it was cheated out of its real share because part of the transfer fee was concealed by Barcelona, Santos and the Neymar family.

Prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison sentence and a fine of nearly 8 million euros for Neymar, as well as fines of about 7.2 million euros for Barcelona and 5.6 million euros for Santos. Even if convicted, he will not spend time behind bars, as a first-time offender under Spanish law.

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Neymar becomes the latest Barcelona player to face corruption charges after Lionel Messi was sentenced to 21 months in prison and Javier Mascherano sentenced to a year in jail after the two of them were accused for tax fraud but since they were first time offenders they did not have to serve their sentence.

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