The investigation into false accounting involving Inter, with almost 100 million in suspected capital gains at the center on the disposals of some players, is focusing mainly on one aspect.
The Milanese prosecutors have put a spotlight on the "system", used not only by the Nerazzurri but very widespread in the Italian transfer market, of the so-called clearing house.
We are talking about exchanges between players of two teams that often take place without money transfers or with money movements that are frozen and then carried out only at a later time.
A mechanism that, according to what investigators have clarified, does not exist in other countries. The Milanese prosecutors now have to evaluate how much this "system" affects the regularity of the financial statements and how much it may have created other profiles of alleged irregularities.
There is also particular attention to contracts with a "buy back" clause, which are also very common: a company sells a player generating a capital gain for that year, keeping the price tag high, then buys it back the following year to a higher price than the one at which he sold it, but amortizing the costs and spreading them over several years. While the other team, which buys it and then sells it at a higher price, realizes in turn a capital gain.
The investigation, starting from a dozen transactions budgeted by Inter between 2017 and 2019, focuses on those in which the players would have been evaluated for figures that appear "markedly disproportionate" to the actual values. Which, hypothesis being examined by investigators, could have served to beautify the budgets and be able to participate in European competitions.
Among the cases under consideration are those of goalkeeper Ionut Radu (7.7 million capital gains) and striker Andrea Pinamonti (19 million capital gains), "rebounded" between Genoa and Inter in two years, but also of the defender Zinho Vanheusden or others low-to-mid-range players.
(Unioneonline / L)
