Prosecutors are trying to save them all.
Petty Mafiosi defrauded Serie A players
Italians lose about €20 billion a year to bandits through illegal bets and online black casinos. Authorities have blocked 11,000 sites, but mirrors appear that cannot be dealt with. Soccer players cannot bet openly on their sports; they will be immediately caught and disqualified. Crooks operate exclusively with the wealthy. They communicate personally, providing access to secret sites where anyone will not get access. As a result, the “client” is caught.
A few years ago, the Italian national team’s Milan and his Juventus colleague Fajoli were caught in illegal soccer betting, and local journalists immediately wrote: dozens, if not hundreds, of players participated. They have already tried to scare athletes with selective punishments, but the tactics have failed. Goalkeeper Buffon gave the mafia millions of euros to cover the losses, and the new generation wasn’t any smarter.
Prosecutors understand that no one will allow them to jail football players. Everyone also understands that the Serie A has gone to the wire, so only the Milan mafia’s main debtors have been caught. The big clans aren’t involved in this, but five friends organized an illegal scheme to siphon money from Italy’s rich. The defendants avoided punishment because tennis players, unknown millionaires, and other lovers of illegal gambling aren’t interested in anyone.
Actors and singers can lose money, and no one will judge them. And players have disciplinary rules. You can’t bet on football, especially on their own team’s matches, as Tonals and Tajoli did. They were regretted and didn’t receive the longest disqualifications. The guys were forgiven because they opened the program and found the main beneficiaries. Two bandits and three jewelers, whose store in Milan was used to launder millions, will be tried.
Black bookmakers and representatives of sites where illegal gambling was conducted offered players high odds and promised anonymity. Not very intelligent Tonals and Tajoli muddled their ears, indebted. As a result, the sums increased so much that the gamblers promised to shoot at their knees. A classic “sucker” divorce, as Russian bandits would say. The Crooks suggested that Fajoli and Tonals bring in new players in exchange for certain debts, and both agreed.
Di Maria, Paredes, and Florence fell for the bait.
Di Maria is a great soccer player, a world champion and Champions League winner. He’s an important figure in Messi’s life. Without Lionel’s classy attacking skills, the Argentinian national team wouldn’t have won a string of cups. But not everyone who’s spoken to Di Maria would call him a smart man. Former Zenit midfielder Paredes has a similar reputation. Bored millionaires decided to gamble and engage in illegal gambling through a pair of small-time mafiosi, who owed Tonals and Tajoli.
The sites were set up so that players constantly lost, and in the “secret poker rooms,” semi-professional players, lured by the Mafia for winning over the players, were definitely sitting on poker. Di Maria, Paredes, and a dozen other football players from the series had to get involved and owe large sums. Of course, it’s easy for a millionaire to go to the bank and withdraw hundreds of thousands of euros from the bill to pay off gambling debts. But it was important to find a money laundering scheme for a black box office.
The Mafia can’t issue a bill to which the money will be transferred, especially for large companies. The bandits came up with a scheme. Through familiar jewelers in Milan, a real shop with expensive watches and jewelry, they detained celebrity debts. If the football player wanted to lie to his wife or daughter, he would receive a real watch and pay much more in cash. The difference was equal to the amount of the debt. And if the football player wasn’t worried about the little things, he made a fictitious purchase.
The bandits took advantage of the high-level players. Fajoli and Tonals lured many of their colleagues into the scheme. Some of them were subsequently removed. We believe prosecutors concluded a dozen deals with the potential defendant. The state accepted the players’ fines, and in response, the lawyers removed the anonymity of the individuals, who were easily deceived by the bandits. All the participants in the scheme began making illegal bets out of boredom and didn’t know how to play poker at all.
The football authorities and the prosecutor’s office have long been in collusion.
Italians write that football and ordinary authorities conspired and are doing everything they can to avoid having to cut half of the national team under Gattuso. Former team coach Spalletti was worried when Tonals was caught, as other stars could be burned. The players were quickly outwitted by lawyers. Now the prosecutor’s office has leverage: they can threaten five defendants—two fraudsters and three jewelers—if they don’t claim in court that the football players are “holy sheep.”
Lawyers for the participants in the illegal schemes have proposed a way out: they claim that each new person implicated played illegal poker and participated in money laundering, but didn’t bet on football. Who would believe it if Buffon and other legends were burned specifically for betting on Serie A matches? In addition to Di Maria, Paredes, and Florence, there are goalkeepers Perin, Havbeki Ricci, and McCenni, the Dzagnolo player, the Italian defender Bellanov, and all those who didn’t make it to the press.
Fajoli and Tonals posed as numerous colleagues. They didn’t destroy phones and hand them over to law enforcement officers in exchange for mitigating penalties. They testified, earning a reputation as “informants.” Until then, everyone realized that the court and the prosecutor’s office were on the side of the malicious lawbreakers. Now, midfielders Fajoli and Tonals are the main victims. They often make reference to gambling, as if the addiction automatically arises in all gambling addicts, although this isn’t true.
An expensive lawyer will always find the right psychiatrist for a profitable client with a diagnosis. You can pretend you’re in treatment; the key is not to argue after reaching an agreement with Milan prosecutors and the financial watchdog. There were likely other people in the gang. If the organizers were shared with a serious mafia, the prosecutors thought it was extreme and didn’t dig deeper. Young players were deceived, and experienced players gambled less frequently.
Fajoli paid the jewelers €693,000, and the total debts of the newcomer, Fiorentina, reached €3 million. Florence paid €155,000 and spent €57,000 just for an imaginary watch. It’s surprising that Paredes and Di Maria divorced. Veterans have lawyers, but millionaires don’t think twice about seeking advice. They confiscated €1.5 million from the store; the turnover was significant. We also note the viciousness of Tonal and Fajoli separately—they deliberately lured many of their colleagues away.
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