Napoli’s lawyer plays down De Laurentiis’ investigation over Osimhen’s transfer

The president Napoli Aurelio De Laurentiis is under investigation for false accounting in the deal to sign Victor Osimhen in 2020 but the club lawyer says there is no cause for alarm.

La Repubblica and other Italian media, including Sky Sport Italia, report the Rome Prosecutor has put De Laurentiis under investigation for alleged false accounting. The investigation concerns Napoli’s deal to sign Osimhen from Ligue 1 side Lille in 2020.

The Nigerian forward moved to the Stadio Maradona for €71.2m but €20.1m of that was made up of four players sent in exchange. The suspicion is that players’ wages were overvalued in order to inflate capital gains.

Italy’s Financial Police, Guardia Di Finanza, gathered documents concerning the deal between April and June 2023 on behalf of the Naples Public Prosecutor’s Office with searches in Castel Volturno, Rome, and France.

As explained by La Repubblica, the investigation of De Laurentiis is a legal obligation after the Naples Prosecutor’s Office sent the documents to Rome, where De Laurentiis’ FilmAuro is based.

Napoli have been cleared of allegations in a sporting trial concerning inflated capital gains in April 2022.

Meanwhile, Napoli’s lawyer Mattia Grassani assures fans that the investigation into De Laurentiis over Osimhen's transfer with LOSC is ‘non-news.’

“Aside from the technicalities, we want to inform the fans what is happening and reassure them,” Napoli lawyer Grassani told Radio CRC.

“Napoli have already been judged on this matter with two different levels of the justice system that cleared the club and directors, finding no irregularities.

“Napoli is the only club where the Prosecutor did not ask for the judgment to be revoked, which then led to Juventus having first a 15-point and then a 10-point Serie A penalty.

“Consequently, if there is no new evidence in this investigation, the Osimhen issue can be considered concluded on a disciplinary level.”

Grassani explained that the only reason the investigation had moved from Naples to Rome was due to territorial competence

because false accounting would be done by the Filmauro group.

This is the holding company for De Laurentiis that runs Napoli and also Serie B side Bari, and their headquarters are in Rome.

“It was an inevitable move, which is why for me this is non-news. The investigation was transferred over territorial competence, not because of any new evidence.”