A series of current and former footballers have been named in a pyramid scheme scandal that could see them face legal action, including La Liga icons Ronaldinho, Vinicius Junior and Luis Figo. The two founders, Dutch Robert Velghe and Swedish Andreas Szakacs have been arrested in Istanbul, Turkiye – the latter had changed his name.
The director of their Latin American operations Juan Carlos Reynoso was also arrested in March of 2023, while the other two founders are fugitives from justice. The scheme relates to a cryptocurrency business called Omegapro which promised investors a 300% return on investment after 14 months. They then delayed that to 18 months and then 26 months before the authorities caught up to them.
OK Diario spoke to one 56-year-old woman, Dolores, from Catalunya who lost her savings of €18k in the scheme. One of the key strategies of Omegapro was to hold events with high-profile footballers and former footballers to convince investors of their legitimacy, also projecting their logo on the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The business was registered in various countries, but one of those headquarters was in the UAE, with the government accused of playing a key role in giving legitimacy to the project.
Swedish investigator and lawyer Lars Oloffson has said that all of the footballers involved will be included in legal complaints in a UK lawsuit, if they were involved or seen sporting Omegapro branding, and an illustrious list of stars are amongst those who have been seen at events.
Ex-Real Madrid stars Fernando Hierro and Roberto Carlos recorded videos confirming their presence, and appeared on stage at the Omegapro global convention in Dubai in January 2022. Hierro’s agency have said he did not earn money for the gig, but did it in exchange for luxurious trip to Dubai and hotel stay, but noted that the UAE government paid for the airline tickets. Carlos’ representatives said he was at no point an ambassador for Omegapro, and added nothing further.
Jamal Musiala is eager to play against Barcelona on Wednesday, and is working intensively on his comeback. @Plettigoal
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A ‘Legends Cup’ was held in Dubai four months later, which saw Luis Figo take on Ronaldinho in an all-stars game, which included Iker Casillas. Ronaldinho’s representatives did not respond to OK Diario, while Figo’s spokespeople said he was contracted by the UAE government, and did not know anything of Omegapro’s activity. Figo and Ronaldinho held a press conference in Omegapro clothing before and publicised the event on their social media. Casillas’ representatives assure he had no contractual relationship with the business, and that he was already in Dubai, deciding to participate.
Current Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior also appeared on stage in Omegapro uniform in Panama at another ‘global convention’, but neither the Brazilian nor Los Blancos have made any comment. In November of 2022, former Barcelona star Carles Puyol also played in a legends game, but his representatives say he was on holiday in the Maldives and decided to play as his former Barcelona teammate Eric Abidal and other friends were involved, but did not earn anything from the event.
This is not the first time that footballers have been involved in promoting cryptocurrency, with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Junior all doing marketing work for for fan tokens or NFTs of some variety or another. Meanwhile a number of La Liga clubs also have cryptocurrency partners, with La Liga signing a multi-million sponsorship deal with Singaporean crypto business Bitget last month.
