The only World Cup that the Spanish men’s team showcases is due to the right foot of Andrés Iniesta, a footballer who has accustomed Barcelona fans to getting up from the stands with his repertoire of luxuries and dribbling. In the last few hours the reputation of the midfielder, who will retire in 2024, has been tarnished by an accusation coming from Peru. The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating him for his alleged role in a chain of scams against Peruvian entrepreneurs for a sum of 600,000 dollars.
In 2023, Iniesta announced through social networks that he would open a delegation in Peru of his multinational Never Say Never (NSN) Barcelona. The company NSN Sudamérica SAC would have several lines of business and would be present in countries such as Spain, Japan, Mexico and the United States. “We are very excited to be present in a country like Peru and in a continent like South America to continue to grow and promote our values throughout the world. We love the passion with which Peruvians live sport,” he said at the time.
In January of the same year, a group of Peruvian and Spanish entrepreneurs dedicated to organizing musical and sporting events founded the company NSN Sudamérica SAC as a subsidiary of Andrés Iniesta’s company. According to the tax dossier, initially the commercial objective was to create football schools in collaboration with clubs and regional governments and, furthermore, to organize sports-related entertainment events. Iniesta’s support was the best guarantee.
Peruvian Ricardo Paul Valderrama Rubio and Spanish Carlos Gómez Pintor, executives of NSN Sudamérica SAC, have been looking for investors to organize a series of high-impact events. They collaborated with the company Gucho Entertainment SAC to create a match of legends between the Spanish and Peruvian national teams, a friendly match between the Cienciano club from Cusco and the Club Nacional from Ecuador, as well as a K-pop festival and another also linked to sports. But according to the complainants, only the Upa Upa Festand with considerable economic losses. There was no sign of the others.
“After appropriating the sums of money we paid to NSN, they declared their company bankrupt, subjecting it to a liquidation process in June 2024, revealing their true intentions,” the dossier reads. The entrepreneurs of Gucho Entertainment claim that both Valderrama Rubio and Gómez Pintor acted under the prestige of an international company to obtain investments and seize other people’s money with total impunity. Furthermore, with the advantage of not residing in Peru.
The tax document highlights that “using his prestige”, Andrés Iniesta “authorised and supported the foundation of NSN Sudamérica SAC”. Investigators are investigating whether the money collected in Peru was transferred to the parent company and placed in new markets. The economic damage amounts to $602,500. For this reason, the Public Prosecutor has initiated preliminary proceedings lasting fifty days against Andrés Iniesta, Ricardo Paul Valderrama Rubio and Carlos Gómez Pintor for the alleged crime against property in the form of aggravated fraud. The Prosecutor’s Office will have to ascertain the complicity between the three involved, who apparently were partners.
Andrés Iniesta’s team responded to the accusations with a statement in which they categorically denies the accusations and regrets that “this information was published maliciously with the aim of taking advantage of the image of a public figure”. “We trust that Peruvian justice will clarify this situation very soon. We reserve the right to take relevant actions in defense of our work and our honor, also requiring maximum rigor in all information published regarding this case”, they underline.
In another section, it is explained in detail that in 2024, Carlos Gómez Pintor, coach of NSN South America, asked for a loan to play a friendly match between Sporting Cristal of Peru and Barcelona of Ecuador, which took place on January 20 of that year, in Miami. He is accused of failing to repay more than $81,000. Five months after the event, NSN Sudamérica SAC entered liquidation. The creditors sent a notarized letter in October last year to Spain, reporting that there has been no payment action to date.
