Barcelona's player Neymar has lost his final appeal and will stand trial on fraud and corruption charges over the transfer to Barcelona four years ago. The appeals by Neymar, Barcelona, and Santos have been turned down by Spain's high court on Monday.
This case is related to Brazilian investment group DIS who filed the complaint. They claimed that they had received less money than it was entitled to when Neymar joined Barcelona from Santos for £49m in 2013. The group owned 40% of Neymar's transfer rights.
Neymar's mother Nadine Goncalves, and family company N&N also had their appeals rejected. "Santos FC, Barcelona FC, Neymar, his mother Nadine Goncalves and N&N, the family company, have lost their appeals to have charges of fraud and corruption dropped," the high court said in a statement.
Prosecutors are seeking about two-year prison sentence with a fine of nearly 7.2 million euros for Barcelona and 5.6 million euros for Santos. But Neymar and his father are unlikely to face any jail even if they are found guilty as they are first time offenders and according to Spanish legal system, prison terms for less than 2 years are typically suspended as reported by BBC.
The total transfer fee was originally quoted as 57.1 million euros but the investment group, DIS which purchased the stake in Neymar's club movements received only 40% of it which was about 17.1 million euros.
In July Neymar's teammate, Lionel Messi was also sentenced to 21 months prison for tax fraud along with his father. They will serve a probation instead of jail time as reported by Washington Post. Earlier in 2016, Neymar was found guilty in a case of unpaid tax of worth $16 and Brazilian court froze his assets worth $50 million.
Neymar is an important member of Barcelona team along with Messi and Suarez who have won various Spanish and International titles for their club.
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