The lawyer at the bottom of the Brazilian DIS, who owned around 40% of Neymar's sporting rights when he signed for Barca has claimed that Neymar, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu should go to jail for five years. The reason being a series of illegal activities which aimed to finacially benefit them.
Paulo Nasser, lawyer in the Brazilian firm DIS, prosecuting the 'Neymar case', who will be crossed-examined from next Monday in court in Barcelona, explained that the Brazilian's signing to Barca "in reality cost 82 million euros but only 17 of those were declared officially".
On Thursday, Nasser appeared in a press conference in which he gave details about the case before the court case starts in Barcelona.
"Our case is based on two things. The first is of private corruption. And the second is of fraud in the way the contract was carried out. The real clause that was in the contract that Neymar signed with Barcelona was that they would keep the money that they should have paid DIS and Santos, a termination clause which would have been 65 million euros", the lawyer declared.
In 2009, DIS secured 40% of the funds of any future transfer of Neymar, who had not even started his professional career at Santos, in exchange for 2 million euros. But the Brazilian lawyers claim that this agreement has not been met.
"Neymar, with the approval of his parents and the management of both Barcelona and Santos, broke the agreement that DIS had given him", Nasser stated.
Barcelona ended up paying 25.17 million euros to Santos for the player's rights, and another 60 million to Neymar's Dad's company (N&N Consultoría Esportiva) , but DIS only received 6.8 million. According to the DIS lawyer, Santos "only received 55% of what they should have".
"This was agreed confidentially by organising a friendly match with Barcelona for 4.5 million euros and by paying 7.9 million for the preferencial rights for three players which was never carried out", he added.
Therefore, DIS and FAAP (the body in charge of professional athletes in Brazil), who will appear in court as two separate prosecutors, and want five years imprisonment for Neymar, a 149 million euro fine paid to the state and to be "banned from playing professionally" during the sentence.
Additionally, they want five year sentences for Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu (president and vice-president of the Barca at the time), as well as a seven-and-a-half year ban from director related roles and a 195 million euro fine paid to the state.
What is more, the Spanish prosecution service are asking for a five year prison sentence for Rosell for the corruption crimes in the dealings and fraud of Neymar's transfer, for whom they are separately demanding two years in prison and a 10 million euro fine for the corruption.
However, they are going less hard on the also ex-president of Barca Josep Maria Bartomeu, after finding out that, despite signing the allegedly fraudulent contracts to sign the Santos striker between 2011 and 2013, he did not play an active role in the negotiations.
Barcelona, Santos and N&N Consultoria Esportiva will also be put on trial by the public prosecution office in search of fines of 84, 7 and 1.44 million euros respectively.
Neymar's transfer has been under investigation for years, with several possibilities open which have caused Barcelona several judicial and financial problems.
The case that the court will hear in Barcelona is the second Neymar one, as the first one ended in an agreement with the Barcelona courts where Barca paid 5.5 million euros and was sentenced for two tax-related crimes, which relieved Rosell and Bartomeu of responsabilities.