A Portuguese travel agent is accused of defrauding international footballer Cristiano Ronaldo of £250,000.
The 53-year-old woman, dubbed Maria Silva in Portugal, also defrauded the footballer’s super-agent Jorge Mendes of more than £14,000 and former Manchester United winger Nani of more than £1,500.
According to allegations published in the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias on Sunday, her misbehavior resulted in her receiving a four-year suspended prison sentence at a court in Porto.
After she gave a full confession, Ronaldo, a father of four, was spared from having to attend her trial, according to the publication.
After flying to Porto on a private plane and meeting with his lawyer Carlos Osorio de Castro, the four-time Ballon D’Or winner submitted a statement to authorities.
Jornal de Noticias was the first to report on the scandal surrounding Silva’s betrayal of Cristiano’s confidence by giving her his credit card information and pin codes.
The €288,000 she allegedly defrauded him of – £245,770 – corresponded to almost 200 journeys he never made between Portugal and other European nations, as well as Europe and Africa and the United States, according to the newspaper.
She allegedly committed the scam by convincing clients to deposit funds for travel she organized for them to her personal account rather than the travel agency’s corporate account.
According to the article, she subsequently charged those excursions to victims’ accounts, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who had provided her with a “virtual” credit card and pin code to “plug the hole” in her company’s accounts.
Between February 2007 and July 2010, while Cristiano Ronaldo was initially playing for Manchester United and subsequently Real Madrid following his record £80 million transfer to Spain, he was targeted.
According to Jornal de Noticias, the Portuguese player made a statement to the Porto Policia Judiciaria on June 7, 2011.
He allegedly entered the police station through a back entrance to avoid being spotted.
Maria Silva is said to have been questioned by detectives in October 2013, but she refused to answer their questions and instead made a complete confession in court, where she was convicted of fraud and forgery.
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