The Milan HQ was raided by the Italian finance police on Tuesday, searching for documents related to the change of ownership from the Elliott fund to RedBird Capital back in 2022. Current CEO Giorgio Furlani and the previous one, Ivan Gazidis, are under investigation, Corriere della Sera informs.
The accusation is that the club still belongs, or at least is heavily influenced, by the former governor. The detectives reportedly found evidence of it in documents in Luxembourg, at the SEC, and in an internal memo recently produced to lure new investors.
Milan, which technically speaking aren’t directly involved, and Elliott denied any wrongdoing through statements. The houses of the execs were also searched. PCs and phones were sequestered.
Furlani and Gazidis are accused of a very specific crime, obstructing the activity of an authority, the Italian FA. The sports inquiry has yet to begin. The possible violations are related to art. 32 and 4 of the Italian bylaws, which mandate loyalty and correct communications on the corporate side, and art. 5 of the UEFA rulebook about multi-ownerships since Elliott also controls Lille. Breaking the latter could lead to the exclusion from the European competitions.
Milan changed hands from the US fund to Gerry Cardinale in 2022 with the help of a €560M vendor loan from the previous governor with a relatively low interest rate. Moreover, some board members stayed and are currently in charge. The businessman added €600M since the outfit had a €1.2B valuation.
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