Former Barcelona president Josep Lluís Nunez sentenced for financial fraud

Josep Lluís Nunez Clemente

Former president of FC Barcelona Josep Lluís Nunez has been sentenced to two years and two months in jail for his convictions associated with embezzlement of close to €13 million in public funds, which is nothing short of a financial fraud.

A Barcelona court had been investigating the case for eight years and recorded statements from various witnesses. The protocols were handed down in July 2007, but the trial did not start until 2009 with a sentencing due in 2010. The sentencing hearing was postponed for another year .

The top court supported a lower court ruling about the fact that tax inspectors continued their “a pact of silence” while they received millions of euros from different businessmen who made false filings in their returns.

The confirmations of the convictions were sent back to a Barcelona court and will be handed down by the court.

The Attorney General’s Office will determine the amount of compensation the defendants will need to pay. Núñez was particularly convicted of buying off the tax inspectors so that they would be oblivious to the allowances he was listing on his tax returns.

Josep Lluís Nunez Clemente was president of FC Barcelona between 1978 and 2000, and is fondly remembered for the hiring of Johan Cruyff as coach which resulted in club’s golden era where they eventually won the the club’s first European Cup in 1992. However, prior to the Cruyff appointment, in 1988 he had to face the players rebellion known as the “Hesperia Mutiny” which ended with the dismissal of almost the whole team except their keeper.

Nunez Clemente is 82 years old now and will avoid jail time due to his age.