Was it a smokescreen? A legal twist could shed new light on the leak orchestrated by the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) staff, Thursday February 15, of the announcement by star Kylian Mbappé to his leaders of his departure from the club summer 2024. According to our information, a search was carried out by investigators at the beginning of February at the headquarters of PSG and the BeIN Sports channel – called the “Factory” – in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine). The search was confirmed by judicial sources, without any details, “this being covered by the secrecy of the instruction”.
Always according to The worldthis operation is part of the judicial investigation opened in 2022 by the Paris prosecutor’s office relating to the so-called “barbouzeries” file surrounding the club and its Qatari president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
In one of the aspects of this affair, police officers from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) and the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses had searched, on January 15, several services of the tax administration of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as revealed Mediapart. Their goal ? Check if PSG benefited from preferential treatment from the tax administration and Urssaf on the transfer of Neymar in 2017, against 222 million euros.
Based on the content of the phone of the former communications director of PSG (2017-2022), Jean-Martial Ribes, indicted in this case for “corruption” and “influence peddling”, investigators suspect the former deputy (LRM, former name of Renaissance) of Paris and former vice-president of the National Assembly, Hugues Renson, of having played matchmaker for the Parisian club with Gérald Darmanin, at the time minister of public accounts, so that PSG avoids paying social security contributions and taxes on the transfer of the Brazilian star.
According to Mediapartbased on the “Football Leaks”, Paris Saint-Germain received, on July 27, 2017, two “rescripts” tax and social security measures sent by the tax authorities and Urssaf of Ile-de-France, announcing that there will be neither tax nor social contributions to pay on Neymar’s release clause. The negotiations were led with the PSG staff by Mr. Darmanin’s chief of staff, Jérôme Fournel, who became director general of public finances in 2019, then, five years later, chief of staff to the Minister of economy and finance, Bruno Le Maire.
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