Neymar is set to be tried next week on allegations of fraud and corruption related to his 2013 move from Santos to Barcelona, and a Brazilian investment firm has demanded that he receive a five-year prison sentence.
The argument put up by DIS, which at the time had 40% of the rights to the Brazil forward, is that it lost out because the transfer fee was too low.
The 30-year-old Neymar has refuted the claims, but in 2017 his appeal was refused by Spain’s High Court, allowing Spanish prosecutors to proceed with the trial.
The Paris St. Germain star will have to show up in person for the trial’s opening day in Barcelona on Monday, according to the court, but it’s not clear if he’ll be required to stay for the whole of the two-week trial.
The other defendants are Neymar’s parents, the two clubs, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Sandro Rosell, and Odilio Rodrigues, the former presidents of Santos and Barcelona, respectively.
Rosell has additionally in the past denied any misconduct.
In a statement, Baker McKenzie, the lawyers representing the Neymar family, claimed that Spanish courts “lack jurisdiction to prosecute the Neymar family and their company N&N” because the acts were committed by Brazilian nationals outside Spanish territory.
At age 17, DIS paid 2 million euros to acquire a part of Neymar’s rights.
Neymar’s transfer cost, according to Barcelona, was 57.1 million euros, of which his family received 40 million.
The remainder of the 17.1 million euros paid to the Brazilian team Santos, which totaled 40%, went to the investing company.
“Neymar’s rights have not been sold to the highest bidder,” DIS lawyer Paulo Nasser told a news conference in Barcelona on Thursday. “There were clubs that offered up to 60m euros.”