Finnish gang of KV Oostende 225,000 euros at Deal with Manchester City: « Mail addresses were adjusted unnoticed » (Ostend)
Ante Palaversa played in the 2019-2020 season for KV Oostende. – © Belga
Less than a year after a German scammer KV Oostende had made a quarter of a million euros lighter, the then football club was once again firmly led. A gang of Finns made the coastal team take 225,000 euros in the event of transfer negotiations with Manchester City. The men were cleverly worked.
KV Oostende and the English top club Manchester City reached an agreement for a temporary transfer from Ante Palaversa in the summer of 2019. The Croatian midfielder came to play at the coastal team and the English would pay a ‘development fee’ of 225,000 euros for this. This is a fee for the added value that KV Oostende would create by training Palaversa.
The loan agreement was signed on July 4, 2019 and Manchester City wrote the reimbursement in two drives of 112,500 euros. But the money would never end up in the account of KV Oostende. Without anyone noticed it, false e -mail addresses were suddenly used in the negotiations that differed slightly from those of the clubs. An ‘I’ was replaced by an ‘L’ or two letters were reversed.
False invoices
KV Oostende submitted a complaint on 4 February 2021 and investigations showed that Manchester City had received false invoices via the fictional email addresses and had transferred the money to the account of a gang of Finnish scammers. The Finnish court already conducted an investigation into money laundering practices at that time, using the same account numbers.
The court was able to identify seven Finns between 32 and 62 years old. They are prosecuted for external hacking, forgery in computer science and gang formation. They did not show up on Wednesday for their trial in the Bruges criminal court. Several defendants would have been convicted in Brussels in a file of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) did not ask for concrete penalties at the trial in Bruges. KVO asked for compensation of 225,000 euros. « Half of this amount was seized in Finland and is in a blocked account there. We will ask for the release of it, » said Patrick Content, the curator of the now bankrupt football club. Earlier, FIFA ruled that Manchester City cannot be blamed.
It was not the first time that KV Oostende became a victim of scams. An 85-year-old German made the club less than 250,000 euros lighter when purchasing player in August 2018 Fashion Sakala from Spartak Moscow. The man was sentenced to twelve months in prison with a delay.
The ruling follows on 25 June in the current file. (AFT)
