According to Decrypt on June 11th, the Fifth District Court of Barcelona is investigating a cryptocurrency fraud case involving professional football players. The company involved in the case, Shirtum, has been accused of defrauding investors of at least 3.4 million US dollars through an NFT project featuring sports stars.
The six players involved in the case include World Cup champions “Papu” Gomez and Lucas Ocampos, former Barcelona players Ivan Rakitić and Javier Saviola. And Nico Pareja and Alberto Moreno.
Prosecution documents show that the Spanish-Argentine joint venture evaded taxes through a complex corporate structure. The NFTS related to the image rights of players sold by this company have never had trading functions. The players participated in the project promotion as “founders” and later systematically deleted the relevant evidence on social media. In March 2022, the company claimed to have suffered a hacker attack but did not report it to the police. Subsequently, the platform quietly shut down.
This case highlights the risks existing in the cryptocurrency field and the problems that celebrity endorsements may cause. Investors often participate in related projects because they trust star players, but they may suffer losses as a result. At present, the case is under further investigation and trial, and the subsequent developments deserve attention.
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