According to PANews, a court in Barcelona's fifth district is investigating a cryptocurrency fraud case involving professional football players. The company in question, Shirtum, is accused of defrauding investors of at least $3.4 million through an NFT project endorsed by prominent football stars. The six players involved include World Cup champion Papu Gómez, Lucas Ocampos, former Barcelona players Ivan Rakitić and Javier Saviola, as well as Nico Pareja and Alberto Moreno.
Prosecutors have revealed that the Spanish-Argentinian joint venture used a complex corporate structure to evade taxes. The NFTs, which were supposed to represent the players' image rights, never achieved any trading functionality. After the players participated as "founders" in promoting the project, related social media evidence was systematically deleted. In March 2022, the company claimed it was hacked but failed to file a police report, and the platform quietly shut down thereafter.