The Spanish newspaper "Sport" reported that Barcelona club president, Joan Laporta, appeared today, Friday, before Investigative Court No. 22 in Barcelona to testify regarding accusations against him of using his professional and commercial credibility to attract investors for various projects through two companies, Core Store based in Barcelona, and CSSB Limited registered in Hong Kong.

The newspaper clarified that the other accused in the case, economist and former Barcelona board member Xavier Sala i Martín, and former TV3 channel director and former owner of Ríos Deportivo club Joan Oliver, did not attend the session. Their lawyers stated that they had not received official notification. Previously, Rafael Yuste, Barcelona's vice president responsible for sports affairs, had testified last week.

According to Sport, the four face accusations of allegedly defrauding one investor of nearly 100,000 euros through the two companies. The investor, represented by lawyer José Oriola, received the amount in exchange for an annual return of 6%, but only recovered 12,500 euros. Additionally, several open cases involve other investors who paid money to the companies without receiving the promised returns or recovering their capital.

The report indicated that the court is investigating whether the accused exploited their professional credibility to attract these investors, noting that the four appeared in promotional brochures for some projects, including the CSSB Limited project to buy a lower-division Chinese club, the Beijing Institute of Technology, which relied on a football academy similar to Barcelona's academy.

The report highlights that this business model had been applied by Laporta and his aides within Barcelona, and they later tried to implement it at Ríos club, which eventually disappeared due to mismanagement.