Barcelona Football Club recently became the target of a sophisticated fraud scheme, losing 1.8 billion naira, approximately €1 million. The incident involved a fraudster posing as a representative of Robert Lewandowski’s agent, Pini Zahavi. The scammer succeeded in deceiving the Spanish football giants into transferring the funds to a bank account in Cyprus under the pretense of settling a transfer-related fee. Despite raising initial red flags, Barcelona proceeded with the transaction.
Further pressuring tactics by the fraudster included threats to report the club to UEFA and an additional demand for €250,000 for silence. The club reached out to Zahavi, who denied any knowledge of the fraud. Subsequently, Barcelona managed to recover part of the funds after the bank’s compliance checks froze the account.
Response and Measures
The incident has spurred Barcelona to enhance their anti-fraud measures to prevent similar episodes in the future. As of now, no criminal investigation has been launched regarding the fraud attempt.
