Andorran judge Joan Carles Moynat accredits the sale of at least 38 smuggled watches amounting to 1,354,650.43 euros to Spanish elite footballers. The judge accuses entrepreneur Diego Giménez Carbonell, owner of the entity Best In Asociados, of "importing large quantities of watches with a value equal to or exceeding 50,000 euros over the last four years" to subsequently sell them without paying the required taxes to internationally renowned footballers like Dani Carvajal, Santi Cazorla, César Azpilicueta, Thomas Partey, or some retired players like David Silva.
According to the judicial investigation summary of the Principality, accessed by EL MUNDO, this entrepreneur, to whom the judge attributes crimes of smuggling, money laundering, and against whom a prison order has been issued, obtained the watches by instructing "individuals" to purchase them in Andorra and then selling them "mostly to professional football players".
"Initially," explains the judge in the case, "the operation detected by Customs agents corresponded to a smuggling practice commonly used by clients who buy in Andorra and do not want to declare their export to avoid paying the respective taxes in their country of residence." This way, "the mechanism involves separating the acquired goods from the invoice and the cash and physically crossing the border without making the necessary export declaration." "Subsequently, the cash and documentation are crossed without the exported goods," adds the instructor.
Andorran justice has discovered that entrepreneur Giménez Carbonell, through these transactions, made "repeated and numerous cash deposits" into his Andorran bank accounts amounting to at least 220,490 euros and acquired "luxury vehicles" after these smuggling operations.
The summary emphasizes that "the majority" of the detainee's clientele consists of "professional footballers with high purchasing power" and questions the credibility of the mastermind's statement, who assured Andorran authorities that players sent individuals to the Principality to collect the watches. "His statements are not very convincing," concludes the judge. It has also been discovered that he acquired other watches through intermediaries in jewellery stores in Spain, France, or England and exported some to the Asian market through an entity based in Hong Kong.
The investigations began last September when Giménez was caught entering Spain "with two watches he had just imported" worth 104,000 euros and was wearing them. Subsequently, his client list was investigated, revealing, among others, Real Madrid's player Dani Carvajal and retired footballer David Silva. Both were immediately contacted by the Spanish Tax Agency, and the entrepreneur agreed with them to pay a "compensation" to cover the tax penalties.
Among his most prominent clients, who will soon have to appear as suspects, is the aforementioned Carvajal, who paid 64,800 euros for a Rolex Daytona Platinum. Silva, on the other hand, paid 295,000 euros for four Patek Philippe watches. One of the players who spent the most in the scheme was Thomas Partey when he was at Arsenal, who spent 415,000 euros on three Patek Philippe watches. Eibar's defender Juan Bernat paid 367,000 euros for three Patek Philippe and a Rolex, and other athletes like Giovani Lo Celso (Betis) ordered watches from the scheme worth 83,000 euros.
The Andorran case also includes some agreements signed between these players and the detained entrepreneur when they began receiving tax evasion claims from the tax authorities. For example, David Silva agreed with Giménez Carbonell in March 2022 for him to pay the 26,279.63 euros demanded by the tax authorities for the purchase of a watch valued at 120,000 plus the associated penalties and interests. In this contract signed by both parties, to mention just one of the traced examples, it states that the watch was delivered in San Sebastián by an employee of the detainee "without declaring the corresponding import of the watch to the Spanish customs or paying the VAT resulting from said import."