ROME (Reuters) -Italian finance police have searched the offices of Serie A club Juventus in Turin and Milan, seeking documents relating to player trading between 2019 and 2021, a prosecutor said.
Juventus, which is Italy’s most successful club with 36 league titles, is listed on Milan’s stock exchange and its largest shareholder is Exor.
Turin prosecutor Anna Maria Loreto said in a statement released late on Friday that the investigation is looking into whether senior managers at Juventus gave false communications to investors and issued invoices for non-existent transactions.
“Several transfer operations of professional players and the services rendered by some agents involved in the related intermediation are under consideration,” Loreto said.
Juventus said on Saturday the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Turin had started investigations against it.
“The company is cooperating with the investigators and with (Italian securities watchdog) CONSOB and trusts that it will clarify any aspect of interest to it as it believes to have acted in compliance with the laws and regulations governing the preparation of financial reports…” Juve said in a statement.
Exor had no immediate comment when asked by Reuters about the investigation.
In September, Juventus said that Italian market regulator CONSOB was looking into revenue received from player trading.
Italy’s Federal Prosecutor last month opened an investigation into a number of soccer player transfers in Serie A.
(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni and Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith and Ken Ferris)
