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In a caller revelation it has been confirmed that erstwhile Barcelona president has been linked to a antagonistic PR run against Pep Guardiola.
Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has recovered himself astatine the halfway of damaging caller revelations successful the ongoing 'Barçagate' scandal.
According to goal.com the constabulary investigators person uncovered WhatsApp conversations that straight implicate the erstwhile Barcelona president successful orchestrating a covert societal media run targeting his critics, including Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
The grounds suggests Bartomeu personally oversaw operations tally by Nicestream, a contracted institution that Barcelona employed during his presidency.
This run was allegedly designed to manipulate online sermon and boost Bartomeu's lasting up of the 2021 statesmanlike elections done systematic attacks connected his rivals.
According to constabulary findings reported by El Pais, Bartomeu stands accused of concealing contractual arrangements, hiding committee payments, and intentionally withholding important documents from outer auditors.
When investigators examined his physics devices, they discovered much than 130 Nicestream reports, yet lone a tiny information of these were ever shared with Price Waterhouse Coopers, the auditing steadfast tasked with investigating the nine aft the ungraded archetypal emerged successful 2020.
The withheld reports allegedly contained grounds of targeted smear campaigns against salient figures including Joan Laporta, Víctor Font, and Guardiola.
These operations were conducted done an extended web of astatine slightest 226 fake societal media profiles, which constabulary accidental were utilized to onslaught critics portion simultaneously promoting favorable contented astir Bartomeu's associates, peculiarly erstwhile president Sandro Rosell.
The fiscal operation of this cognition appears arsenic questionable. Investigators judge the run was funded done deliberately fragmented contracts totaling implicit €2.3 million, structured specifically to debar detection by Barcelona's interior oversight mechanisms.
Police documents bespeak that Bartomeu maintained nonstop engagement successful the operation, receiving regular updates from his advisor Jaume Masferrer and personally requesting modifications to contented and imagery.
Despite Bartomeu's continued denials of wrongdoing, the recovered communications overgarment a representation of progressive supervision and consequent obstruction efforts.
When auditors demanded implicit transparency during their investigation, Bartomeu reportedly resisted, stating that the audit was commissioned by the committee and that lone the committee would find what findings became public.
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