Napoli President De Laurentiis Faces Financial Misconduct Investigation

The president of Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis, arrived at around 12:00 today (April 3) at the Prosecutor's Office in Rome, to be interrogated as part of the investigation that sees him accused of false accounting. The procedure is linked to alleged fictitious capital gains surrounding the purchase of the striker Victor Osimhen in 2020 from the French team Lille. For this matter, last January, the prosecutors of Piazzale Clodio have requested for the Napoli owner and other suspects to be sent to trial. The registration of De Laurentiis in the register of suspects in Rome took place after the documents were sent by the Neapolitan prosecutors. In January, the Capital's prosecution office closed the investigations which, in addition to the president, also involve the sports club Calcio Napoli and the board of directors at the time of the events. The investigation is being handled by the prosecutors Lorenzo Del Giudice and Giorgio Orano, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini. The sports justice, however, has already archived the issue related to Osimhen's capital gain. De Laurentiis was heard for about an hour by the Rome prosecutors, to whom the head of the blue club responded to all questions. Moreover, the president of Napoli provided a series of elements that will now be subject to evaluation. The owner defended himself by stating that the club, in light of the economic solidity of its accounts, had no interest in creating fictitious capital gains. In the coming days, the defenders, lawyers Fabio Fulgeri and Lorenzo Contrada will provide the magistrates with a defensive memorandum. "I believe that De Laurentiis was clear with the prosecutors regarding the contested accusation of false accounting related to the Osimhen operation - says Fulgeri -, which did not bring any advantage to the sports club Calcio Napoli neither in terms of assets, because that aspect has already been examined by the Naples prosecution and has been archived, nor in terms of sports because it emerged from this investigation that the company's assets are so ample and healthy that there is no need to valorize an operation to register for the Italian or European championships. We trust in a reevaluation of the contestation", he added.