An inquiry in Brazil raised concerns about money laundering and made Brazil investigate the company behind the transfer of the 2 of the world’s most gifted young footballers to West Ham.
Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano are successful South American football players, stars of the Argentina World Cup squad, who had been acquired from Corinthians. But, as it came out later, West Ham did not pay anything for them.
The officials of Brazil’s organised crime taskforce and the Brazilian intelligence agency investigated a subsidiary of a secretive offshore investment company, Media Sport Investment (MSI), and its background after it took over Brazil’s leading club, Corinthians.
A company linked to a takeover bid at West Ham that previously owned both footballers is being under investigation regarding allegations about money laundering. So, it is quite possible that talented footlballers became the victims of the partnership MSI-Corinthians which was necessary to launder money.
The identities of the individuals who stand behind the deal are known to very few. However, there are allegations that the money being laundered through Corinthians could belong to Boris Berezovsky. Though, he is not the only one who purportedly participated or stood behind the deal.
Mr Berezovsky is a mathematician-turned-entrepreneur, who was the oligarchy’s wealthiest and most powerful player until Russia’s President Vladimir Putin turned upon him. Since then Berezovsky has lived in exile in the UK, until he was given a UK passport under the name Platon Elenin. However, he will be instantly arrested, if he returns home.
Another man connected with the deal is a former Communist Party official from Georgia, the owner of Dinamo Tbilisi football club and Mr Berezovsky’s old friend Badri Patarkatsishvili, 50. He faces arrest on fraud charges if comes to Russia as well.
One more influential figure in the West Ham story seems to be Pini Zahavi – an Israeli sports journalist-turned-agent that has been behind some of the biggest transfers in English football.
The only person who does not deny having a hand in the deal is an Iranian-born businessmen Kia Joorabchian, 35, whose family after the 1979 Islamic revolution fled to Kent. In 1999, Mr Joorabchian bought 85% of the one of the most influential newspapers of the post-Soviet era, Kommersant, through a British Virgin Islands-registered company.
Both Mr Joorabchian and Mr Berezovsky deny the money-laundering claims.