Andorra la VellaThe Omegapro company promised a 300% return in 14 months for investing in cryptocurrencies. He swindled almost three million people out of around €3 billion thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign involving celebrities at major events around the world.
Among them, former Barça player and resident of Andorra Carles Puyol. He and the rest of the players and ex-players who paid for the Omegapro publicity acts will be reported. “All football players who have been seen at Omegapro events will be sued by us in London”, said lawyer and investigator Lars Olofsson, who represents hundreds of fraud victims.
The list includes other figures from the world of football such as Vinícius, Ronaldinho, Figo, Ferro, Roberto Carlos or Casillas. Some of them even advertised it on their social networks. The events took place in 2022, when almost half a dozen international regulators (France, Belgium, Colombia, Peru, Spain…) had already warned of fraud. In Spain, the National Stock Market Commission had included it in its list of financial kiosks in January 2020.
Arrests and imprisonments
This past summer, two of the company’s founders were arrested in Istanbul: the Dutch Robert Velghe and the Swedish Andreas Szakacswho resided in Turkey after changing his name. Both have remained in prison ever since. In March 2023, the manager for Latin America, Juan Carlos Reynoso, was also arrested. The other two founders of Omegapro are fugitives from justice, as reported by Eldiario.es.
The scam raises the responsibility of celebrities who participate in acts of promotion of financial fraud warned by the regulators, point out several legal sources consulted. In some lawsuits that have been presented in France, where there are thousands of victims, the responsibility of these footballers is also highlighted considering that they contributed to giving the truth to the fraud.
Pujol denies the relationship
In November 2022, just weeks before the pyramid scheme went bust, a major trip was held to the Maldives where the middle managers of the scam were invited to meet the company’s leaders. On this occasion, a “legends” match was also held, in which ex-players such as Carles Puyol took part.
A spokeswoman for the former defender claims that Puyol was in the Maldives on holiday with his family and it coincided with the celebration of the match. He says that he decided to play it because his friends like fellow former Barça player Eric Abidal were participating. The representative assures that Puyol neither received nor obtained any consideration for his participation.