The Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has recommended a 12-year prison sentence for Watford’s owner, Gino Pozzo, after he was accused of implementing “a long-term criminal plan” while in charge of the Spanish club Granada to evade paying more than €9m in tax on transfers.
Pozzo – who took over Watford with his father, Giampaolo, in 2012 and became sole owner in 2014 – has been under investigation for several years in Spain over alleged tax fraud related to his spell as Granada’s owner between 2009 and 2015. A ruling by the judge Santiago Pedraz last April, first reported by El Periódico de España, recommended that Pozzo and the former Granada president Enrique Pina should stand trial despite his shelving the case in September 2022 after finding no evidence of money laundering.
Lawyers for Pozzo have been awaiting the results of their petition to annul the proceedings and prevent them from facing trial, although it was revealed last year that Pina had accepted a nine-month prison sentence after admitting that they promoted “various asset-emptying manoeuvres” to avoid their debt with the treasury, creating a whole network of “front men” and “instrumental” companies. Pina – who is also an agent and was managing director of Cádiz – avoided serving his sentence behind bars after an agreement with the public prosecution service under which he paid a financial penalty and agreed to settle some of the debt to the treasury.
A report in the Spanish newspaper El País on Tuesday that cited a source within the prosecutor’s office claimed that Pozzo was able to “defraud millions from the tax authorities” through a network of companies and “complex movements of money coming from the signing of footballers”.
A spokesperson for Pozzo said: “The case against Mr Pozzo was abandoned in 2022 with absolutely no evidence of fraud or suggestion of criminality. Mr Pozzo refutes in the strongest possible terms he has breached Spanish tax laws in any way.”
According to the prosecutors, Pozzo and Pina used their network of companies in Italy, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates to move “profits obtained by the club in the transfer of professional footballers” without paying taxes in Spain, “thus obtaining a significant economic profit to the detriment of the Spanish Public Finance Agency”.
In addition to the request for 12 years in prison, the public prosecutor has called for Pozzo to repay €35m in taxes. No date has been set for any trial regarding Pozzo’s alleged involvement.
The Pozzo family are understood to have held talks with investors about selling some of their shares in Watford, with reports on Tuesday that the American group The Football Co. – led by the former Goldman Sachs banker Peter Grieve – could be interested in a full takeover.
