Article by Mihai Șovei – Published Monday, December 29, 2025, 2:49 p.m. / Updated Monday, December 29, 2025, 2:50 p.m.
A court in Barcelona summoned FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta, vice-president Rafael Yuste and former club directors Xavier Sala, Martin and Joan Oliver to testify on January 16. They are accused of an alleged fraud in the amount of approximately 100,000 euros, according to “El Periodico“.
It is alleged that several investors provided money to companies in which they were involved in exchange for a high annual return, but ultimately neither received the promised interest nor recovered their invested funds.
The president of Barcelona, accused of tax fraud
This is the third open case in which Laporta is being investigated for alleged fraud. The case is related to the activity of the companies Core Store, based in Barcelona, and CSSB Limited, registered in Hong Kong, whose legal representative was Joan Oliver.
Specifically, it is a case from 2016 when a family who won the lottery was directed to invest in CSSB Limited, which is the majority owner of Core Store, a company where Laporta was a director between 2011 and 2019. The family was promised a return of 6% annually, which did not happen, according to the aforementioned source.
The president of Barcelona has completely denied his involvement in any criminal actions or liable to legal sanctions, also stating that he did not sign any document related to the case and his name was included in the complaint only to give more importance to the issue and to attract media interest.
Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona / Photo: Imago
Last November, the court in Barcelona ordered the investigating magistrate to accept the complaint filed by the injured party, who managed to recover only 12,500 euros of the amount invested.
In addition to Laporta, Yuste, Sala, Martin and Oliver, the judge ordered that representatives of Core Store and CSSB Limited also appear in court on January 16. According to the magistrate, if the facts set out in the complaint prove to be true, they could constitute the crime of “cheating”.
