AC Milan chief blasts money-laundering reports
Milan: AC Milan president Li Yonghong has blasted Italian media reports claiming Italian prosecutors had opened an investigation into whether the deal to sell the club last year was inflated for money-laundering purposes.
Yonghong also threatened legal action against Italian dailies La Stampa and Il Secolo XIX, the two papers that published the same original story that claimed Milan prosecutors want to know if the 740 million euros ($786 million) paid by Chinese investors to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to buy out the fallen Serie A giants last year was overvalued in a deliberate move to bring large sums of money into Italy from abroad.
"The AC Milan purchase process has always been carried out with the utmost transparency, compliance with regulations and correctness, with the support and advice of international financial and legal advisors," said Yonghong in a statement on AC Milan's official website.
"What I have read these days absolutely does not reflect the reality of facts… We reserve the right to take all necessary legal action to best protect the image, the reputation and the financial solidity of the companies of the AC Milan S.p.A. Group."
The reports in the article published by La Stampa and Il Secolo XIX at the weekend were quickly denied by the Milan prosecutors office, but the papers refused to retract their joint story, claiming that they had been made aware of the investigation by two separate sources.
