Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, his adviser Jaume Masferrer, club CEO Oscar Grau and head of legal services Roman Gomez Ponti were arrested after a raid on club offices on Monday, sources confirmed to ESPN.
A spokesman for the local police also confirmed to ESPN that “arrests are taking place, but we cannot give names. We are currently conducting an operation with agents from the financial crime unit”.
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The police arrived at the Barça office to look for evidence regarding the social media scandal “Barcagate” and later made the arrests.
It has been a year since it was alleged that Barça, under Bartomeu’s government at the time, paid a third-party company to defame former players, current players and presidential candidates on social media.
Barça vehemently denied the charges and terminated its contract with I3 Ventures, the company behind social media accounts.
An external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers later cleared the Catalan club of any irregularities and also found that Barça did not pay an inflated price for a series of services with I3, absolving the club of any financial corruption.
However, the police continue to investigate the case, having opened their own investigation last year. They first broke into the club’s Camp Nou offices last June, looking for documents related to the charges.
On Monday, club officials were asked to leave the building when the police returned again, looking for more evidence to help with the investigation.
Bartomeu resigned, although his resignation is unrelated to the “Barcagate” scandal, and the club will elect a new president on March 7. Carles Tusquets is temporarily in charge.
The allegations were first made by a local radio station last February. Evidence was revealed that, in addition to defending Bartomeu, I3 was behind a series of Facebook accounts that attacked people related to the club, including players Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, former captain Xavi Hernandez, former coach Pep Guardiola and presidential candidates Victor Font and Agusti Benedito.
Bartomeu and Barça immediately terminated their contract with I3 and denied any knowledge of the accounts. Bartomeu’s adviser, Masferrer, was later suspended after being held responsible for the club’s relationship with I3.
Masferrer later returned to work with Bartomeu and no further action was taken internally after the publication of the external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers.