De Laurentiis, Napoli President, under scrutiny in Osimhen false accounting inquiry

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was questioned in an investigation into alleged false accounting in the signing of Victor Osimhen.

Chirag

April 3, 2024

Osimhen False Accounting Case — Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Today, Napoli’s president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, faced questioning in connection with an investigation into suspected false accounting related to the acquisition of Victor Osimhen. The deal, sealed in September 2020, was initially valued at €76,356,819, which included the purported market worth of four players transferred to Lille as part of the agreement.

These players were assessed at a combined market value of around €20 million, with individual values attributed as follows: Ciro Palmieri – €7,026,349, Orestis Karnezis – €5,128,205, Luigi Liguori – €4,071,247, and Claudio Manzi – €4,021,762. Investigators claim these valuations were inflated to benefit Napoli’s financial records.

According to Calciomercato.com, De Laurentiis, accompanied by his lawyer Fabio Fulgeri, appeared before the FIGC prosecutor’s office in Rome today. There, he underwent approximately 90 minutes of questioning conducted by deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini as part of the inquiry into false accounting.

Liguori had previously commented on the matter in 2021, suggesting ulterior motives behind the Osimhen deal, stating, “It wasn’t a transaction made for us, for our future. It was for something else. We were ousted from Napoli with a sense of ‘guilt’ because we were kept in the dark.”

Napoli issued an official statement regarding De Laurentiis’ visit to the FIGC prosecutor’s office today, noting, “Aurelio De Laurentiis voluntarily requested to be questioned by the Public Prosecutors of the Rome Prosecutor’s Office as part of the ongoing investigations into the sale of footballer Victor Osimhen.”