West Ham and Newcastle Raided in tax investigation....

Vorselaarhammer

Just seen this, seems we are under investigation for Transfer dealings and have been raided this morning...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/newcastle-and-west-ham-raided-by-hmrc-after-transfers-investigation-a7702521.html

Moojor

To be fair, there has been a lot of comments about how criminal our transfers have been...

;yercoat

MrsGrey

Wanna bet that when more details come out and the press can write a fuller report, they bring up old problems we have had at the Stadium, like crowd trouble?

Vorselaarhammer

Now on the Beeb.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39716009

Vorselaarhammer

This could be the cheery on the Cake of a great season...

TwistandShout

Lol we can't even do the bad transfers properly

Hamstew

Never ever a dull moment

grey_til_I_dye

Not sure how 'suspected income tax & national insurance fraud' relates to transfer dealings...

Vorselaarhammer

Maybe Rose has something to do with it....

OldCastleSwift

I'm going to go out of a limb here and say we've done nothing wrong.

Because I'd be amazed if after the Tevez affair the club would do anything that was even approaching illegal.

secrethammersfan

As a digression, those HMRC officers deployed in France wouldn't have been so quickly deployed had Britain not been part of the EU. Just an observation.

secrethammersfan

Of course, had Britain not been in the EU, it might have slowed down some of our transfers, giving some people more time to consider.

IronHerb

Yeah, but the request probably went in 3 months ago and they just got around to it. French bureaucracy is appalling.

MarkNobleLocalHero

Dan Roan on the case again ;clap

grey_til_I_dye

I'd imagine it is one of these cases where tax lawyers swear what they are offering is a legal exploitation of a loophole, and HMRC beg to differ.

Seems extremely unlikely that two clubs would get involved in deliberate fraud, given how closely their accounts are scrutinised.

TwistandShout

Just having a joke, G

grey_til_I_dye

Twist ;ok

Comment wasn't aimed at you, but the headline in the Independent.

baracks_a_hammer

Let's just pay over the £30m fine and move on

TwistandShout

Grey ;ok

Vorselaarhammer

I like the last Paragraph...

http://newsthump.com/2017/04/26/west-ham-and-newcastle-united-raided-by-police-after-fraudulently-claiming-to-be-football-teams/

Yeoldhammer

Dodgy stuff at West Ham... Never ;whistle

eskimoking

If it's not aimed at the clubs, could some of those articles be considered as slander? (i.e. Mr Roan's).

Yeoldhammer

Allardyce > Ravel Morrison > Tape. Gottem

baracks_a_hammer

Hopefully the results of our games where we fielded our suspect signings will be annulled. We might find ourselves close to a champions league spot as a result

MrsGrey

eskimoking said:

If it's not aimed at the clubs, could some of those articles be considered as slander? (i.e. Mr Roan's).

The couple of articles I have seen have been careful not to accuse WHU of anything, and report quite factually on what HMRC has said/done. So, if they are all like that... probably not.

Vorselaarhammer

As I understand one guy has been arrested at Newcastle, maybe it's just about the transfers his done..

But I can think of any deals we've had with Newcastle...?

Pengeman

West Ham and Newcastle are not the only clubs allegedly involved in murky deals, using offshore accounts and anonymous shell companies. Too many big names and clubs are implicated. See the links here https://footballleaks2015.wordpress.com/

I have no time for any organisation trying to dodge tax as most of us pay our fair share and certainly can't hire accountants and lawyers or create opaque shell companies or find other ways of dodging taxes. Once football Clubs represented the community but now they are big business, but must not forget that tax dodging on their part means that either we the supporters pay more for the same social rights or accept cuts. Hope someone at the FA and Clubs grasps that.

That said, despite the massive Der Spiegel leak there have been no persecutions as yet. If the eventual prosecutions are successful that would serious questions about whether some individuals are 'fit and proper persons to control a football Club. In extreme cases it could lead to heavy fines, bans and even points deductions, but at the moment we are a long way away from that.

MrsGrey

pengeman, the info so far about this particular case is that it relates to individuals' actions, not the clubs'

Bazshuayi

I'm guessing part of our forfeit will be to employ Mr H Rednapp as Director of Sport and Finance ;whistle

MrsGrey

Vorselaarhammer said:

As I understand one guy has been arrested at Newcastle, maybe it's just about the transfers his done..



But I can think of any deals we've had with Newcastle...?

Maybe the common denominator isn't a transfer between the 2, but a French club we have both had dealings with (separately).

No doubt all will become clear in due course.

Pengeman

MrsGrey - Players are transferred and remunerated though Clubs. Mangers and agents are also paid by Clubs. So Clubs will inevitably be implicated if any shady dealings are found. I am sure that we will hear more in weeks to come.

Here is a link and another link to an earlier leak knows as the Panama Papers https://panamapapers.icij.org/ . BBC said that the leak also touches the football's government body http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-35954224

Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho have been alleged to be involved in tax avoidance http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38191470
Here is an item about Pogbahttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4019872/Paul-Pogba-centre-fresh-Football-Leaks-revelations-Manchester-United-star-having-Jersey-tax-haven.html and you will find much more on the internet.