After Lewandowski transfer: Barcelona pays millions to fraudsters

FC Barcelona paid around 43 million francs for the services of Robert Lewandowski in the summer of 2022. At the end of July, several people in Barça’s management received a message from the email address [email protected] – allegedly from Lewandowski advisor Pini Zahavi.

It said that part of the transfer fee should be transferred to a bank account of the alleged lawyer Michael D. in Cyprus, according to an investigation by the program “Què t’hi Jugues” from SER Catalunya, in collaboration with Paper Trail Media and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The Catalans followed the instructions and paid around one million francs into the account. Luckily for Barcelona, ​​the payment was blocked. According to the investigation, the account was only opened in July 2022 and did not show any transactions until then – Barcelona received the money back.

The whole Barcelona field only a month later when she contacted Lewandowski’s agent Zahavi and asked if he had requested payment to Cyprus. Zahavi Negated died. Both the club and Zahavi did not file a complaint: both thought that the other party would do so.

The SER and the OCCRP track down the alleged lawyer D. The Dutchman is not registered as a lawyer in any European country. The 51-year-old claimed that his documents were stolen and that was how the account was opened.

The Cypriot bank denied this: it was impossible to open an account with stolen documents. Opening an account is only possible after a personal meeting or a video conference, as a spokesman emphasized.