NB Cellino's brief is called Professor Cocco. Enough I say!
Leeds United: Confusion continues after Cellino found guilty of tax evasion
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/latest-whites-news/leeds-united-confusion-continues-after-cellino-found-guilty-of-tax-evasion-1-6504825
Leeds United fans are braced for a prolonged period of uncertainty over
the club’s future after an Italian court found prospective owner Massimo
Cellino guilty of tax evasion.
The 57-year-old has been waiting for the Football League to approve his
takeover of the Whites since his company Eleonora Sports agreed a
£25million deal to buy 75 per cent of the club’s shares at the beginning
of February.
But the Italian’s bid to take control at Elland Road appears to have
been scuppered after he was fined 600,000 euros by Judge Sandra Lepore
in a Cagliari court for failing to pay more than 400,000 euros in import
tax on his luxury yacht, Nelie, which he bought in 2010 and has now been
confiscated.
Cellino’s lawyer Giovanni Cocco immediately announced the Miami-based
businessman planned to appeal against the court’s ruling.
The Football League has been in protracted negotiations with Cellino’s
legal representatives in England and was understood to be waiting for
the outcome of the court hearing before making a decision on the
ownership of Leeds.
A Football League statement read: “The Football League has noted the
outcome of the court hearing earlier (on Tuesday) regarding Massimo Cellino.
“We are engaged in an ongoing dialogue with his legal representatives in
this country and cannot comment further at this time.”
The governing body’s ‘owners and directors’ test, prevents anyone with
an unspent conviction for dishonesty offences from being a director, a
30 per cent owner, or from exercising control over one of its clubs.
Leeds supporters can now expect further delays and more legal wrangling
between Cellino and the League as the uncertainty over their club continues.
Leeds managing director David Haigh insisted last week that there is “no
chance” of the club going into administration, as it is Cellino’s money
which has been keeping the club going.
“This verdict is absolutely unjust and we will appeal,” Cocco told the
Guardian after the brief court session.
Cellino, currently the owner of Cagliari, denies that he was seeking to
evade import duty on the yacht.
He told the court in December that he had planned to have it sailed to
the United States, where he had bought it, but was unable to due to
damage to the vessel.
Cellino, who exchanged contracts with Leeds’ current owners Gulf finance
House Capital to buy 75 per cent of the club’s shares on February 1, has
already provided considerable funds to cover running costs at Elland Road.
He has covered the club’s staff wage bill for the last two months and
has paid off a loan from shirt sponsors Enterprise Insurance to stave
off a winding-up order.
Since the takeover deal with GFH Capital was agreed, Leeds have also
signed Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland and Sunderland striker Connor
Wickham on loan until the end of the season.
Cellino’s lawyers started talks with the Football League at the end of
January and the Cagliari owner met with the governing body on February 12.
Bahrain-based investment firm GFH Capital has been searching for major
investment since buying the club from Ken Bates in December 2012.
A rival consortium to Cellino, headed by Andrew Flowers, chief executive
of club sponsor Enterprise Insurance, withdrew from the race to take
control at Elland Road at the end of January, but a third group,
Together Leeds, fronted by former Manchester United international
managing director Mike Farnan, has been waiting in the background.
GFH Capital has so far refused to enter into serious talks with Together
Leeds after rejecting a “derisory” offer from them in November.
Cellino has twice been previously convicted of fraud and is currently
contesting a separate charge of embezzlement.
He received a 15-month suspended prison sentence in 2001 after being
convicted of false accounting at Cagliari.
A previous conviction in 1996 for fraudulently claiming EU agricultural
subsidies was overturned in 2012, while in February 2013 he spent 16
days in jail after being arrested for embezzlement - a charge he denies
- in relation to the redevelopment of Cagliari’s Is Arena stadium.
But Cellino’s two previous convictions, nearly 13 and 18 years old, are
considered “spent” in English law and it is understood they cannot be
taken into consideration under the League’s test.
In relation to his outstanding charge, Cellino is assumed innocent until
it can be proved otherwise and he denies the allegations.
Cellino, long considered one of the most charismatic owners in Italian
football, was shown around Leeds’ Thorp Arch training ground for the
first time in October.
A Leeds spokesman said on Tuesday that the club would not be commenting
at this stage and were waiting for the Football League’s definitive
decision on Cellino’s proposed takeover before issuing a statement.
Cellino said publicly last week that he could no longer continue to
bankroll the club until the League gives his takeover the go ahead.
He also said he would “walk away” from Leeds without a fight if he did
not pass the League’s test.
But it seems the agricultural entrepreneur is not ready to give up his
fight yet.
Cellino’s lawyer Professor Cocco told BBC Radio Leeds that the appeal
against the tax evasion verdict could take between six and nine months.
Cocco added: “According to my point of view, this business (on Tuesday)
has no relevance whatsoever to the decision of the Football League.
“Obviously that’s up to the Football League themselves.
“In my opinion, as a lawyer, today’s sentence has no relevance to the
takeover of Leeds United.
“The verdict does not mean that Cellino is guilty - because in Italian
law he can only be guilty after the third stage of the process. Today he
is innocent.”
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John 'Grampa' Sykes
Rest In Peace old lad
28th Oct 1938 - 12 Nov 2013
MARCHING ON TOGETHER
