According to Mediapart and “Libération”, the Parisian club would have benefited from tax advantages during the transfer for the record amount of 222 million euros for the Brazilian star. The name of the Minister of Public Accounts at the time appears in this case.
“There therefore seems to be evidence of the personal involvement of Gérald Darmanin”, she judges. The rebellious MEP Manon Aubry announced, Wednesday January 10, that she had sent a referral to the Paris public prosecutor, which the latter had not yet received twenty-four hours later, on “facts likely to constitute complicity in tax fraud” from Gérald Darmanin, who was Minister of Public Accounts at the time. The elected representative of La France insoumise relies on the revelations of Mediapart, which come after he was confirmed, Thursday evening, at the Ministry of the Interior. The investigative site claims that Gérald Darmanin and his chief of staff helped Paris Saint-Germain not to pay millions of euros in taxes on the most expensive transfer in the history of football, that of the Brazilian superstar Neymar, intervened on August 3, 2017. Franceinfo details this affair for you.
Justice suspects PSG of having wanted to avoid paying taxes on the transfer
Since September 2022, investigating judges have been responsible for an investigation into the members of a parallel “cell” within Paris Saint-Germain, suspected of having requested intervention on their behalf from the police. Influence operations, some of which are attributed to the former communications director of PSG, Jean-Martial Ribes, who “established as one of the key men of the club”, according to Release. “Jean-Martial Ribes was for eleven years, until his departure in May 2022, one of the closest collaborators of PSG boss Nasser Al-Khelaïfi”, underlines Mediapart. The communicator, aged 57, was indicted on December 1 for six offenses, including “corruption” and “influence peddling”, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to franceinfo. According to the AFP, in exchange for rewards such as goodies and tickets to PSG matches, he is suspected of having used his functions to obtain personal advantages for his family, as well as sensitive information for the club.
It is in this context that investigators became interested in the negotiations surrounding the arrival at PSG of football superstar Neymar at the end of July 2017. A problem then arises: the player’s contract at FC Barcelona includes a release clause, set at the staggering amount of 222 million euros. It is up to Neymar to pay this sum to leave Barça, then to the new international club, in this case PSG, to reimburse him. However, in France, this payment risks being considered as an advance on salary, and therefore subject to income tax and social security contributions, in the same way as traditional remuneration. However, justice suspects Jean-Martial Ribes of having sought to avoid this taxation.
The minister’s director had a meeting with the club about the taxation of the operation
Justice is questioning the intermediary role that former LREM deputy Hugues Renson, vice-president of the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022, could have played. “A week before the transfer was finalized on August 3, 2017, Ribes bombarded the deputy with summaries written by a small hand at the club and other ‘ultra confidential memos’”revealed Release. Like AFP and Mediapart, the newspaper revealed extracts, at the beginning of January, from a report from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), submitted to Parisian investigating judges on November 21, 2023, to which franceinfo n did not have access.
According to the IGPN, responsible for investigating, because three former police officers are indicted in this case, Hughes Renson declared, on July 24, 2017, to have relayed to Gérald Darmanin, then Minister of Public Accounts, a “PSG subject” which seems to be the taxation of the transfer. “He has the thing in mind and tells me that he is working on it”assures the former deputy to Jean-Martial Ribes by SMS, according to the three media which consulted the report, and according to which “he” designates Gérald Darmanin. Hughes Renson, who now works for EDF, specifies that the “superior” of the minister, that is to say the “president” and his team, are also involved. Asked by Mediapart about a possible role for Emmanuel Macron, the Elysée did not respond.
Mediapart claims that on the evening of July 24, 2017, the general director of PSG spoke with Gérald Darmanin’s chief of staff, Jérôme Fournel, who has since become boss of the General Directorate of Public Finance. The latter submitted to him “ways to escape social security contributions”in a white note entitled “player transfer”, according to Mediapart, which publishes extracts. According to the information site, Jean-Martial Ribes, who obtained the note, immediately transferred it to Hugues Renson. The next day, Hugues Renson seemed to interfere so that PSG was present at an ad hoc meeting of the Ministry of Public Accounts, which took place two days later. Then, according to the IGPN report, the day after Neymar’s transfer, “Mr Renson thanks Mr Ribes” who would have allowed his two sons to accompany the PSG players at the Parc des Princes, when they entered the field, for the resumption of Ligue 1, on August 5, 2017. “Neymar is a non-issue for Mr. Ribes who did not participate in any meeting related to the economic issues of the transfer”however, defends Romain Vanni, the lawyer of the former Parisian leader, to AFP and Mediapart.
The courts were seized for “facts likely to constitute complicity in tax fraud”
For Manon Aubry, these revelations show that “through the Paris deputy, Hugues Renson, PSG contacts Gérald Darmanin”. If the European deputy of La France insoumise writes to the public prosecutor of Paris, it is because she believes that there is “evidence of the personal involvement of Gérald Darmanin in an operation aimed at allowing PSG to evade its tax obligations and not to pay the tax and social security contributions normally due to the French public accounts following the transfer of Neymar football player. It thus highlights the content of a sent SMS “right after the meeting” from July 26, 2017 by Hugues Renson to Jean-Martial Ribes, revealed by the three media: “I was with Gérald. We talked. He thinks it’s good. The timetable seems set. And what matters is that the documents we mentioned are produced. They will protect.”
According to Mediapart, PSG received a few days before the transfer was made official “two tax rulings sent by the tax authorities and Urssaf of Ile-de-France, which announce to the club that there will be neither tax nor social security contributions to pay regarding Neymar’s release clause”. For the rebellious elected official, this confirms “that a system was put in place to allow PSG to circumvent its tax obligations”. “Do you believe that we, PSG, with everything we have paid in taxes, we need to do this for Neymar? responds Nasser Al-Khelaïfi in The Parisian. In France, there is no legal framework for the redemption of release clauses and when you wish to redeem one you must necessarily contact those in charge.”
“Neymar came to France and contributed to the wealth of our country and to the influence of part of our football. I have no comment to make once again, nothing illegal in all that”reacted for her part Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports, now also responsible for National Education, Youth and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, questioned on this subject on RMC Sport. I let Gérald Darmanin provide any details he may wish.” But neither the minister’s entourage nor Jérôme Fournel, contacted by Mediapart, AFP and Releasehave not commented on this matter.
At the time of the transfer of the Brazilian footballer, Gérald Darmanin publicly “glad about the taxes that Neymar [allait] be able to pay in France” and had guaranteed that its services would closely analyze the financial arrangement of the transfer.