By Andrew Warshaw
January 12 – Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric (pictured with Harry Redknapp) has been charged with tax evasion while he held the same role at Portsmouth, the latest blow to the fortunes of the ailing English Premier League club.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Mandaric had been charged in relation to the payment of £295,000 to another person via a bank account in Monaco and evading the tax and national insurance contributions that were due between April 1, 2002 and November 28, 2007.
He is due to appear at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 11.
“Following a thorough investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the City of London Police, the CPS decided there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge Mr Mandaric with two counts of cheating the public revenue,” a CPS statement said.
Mandaric, 71, was one of five men arrested by City of London Police in November 2007 in a continuing inquiry by fraud detectives to root out alleged corruption in football.
When it was announced in late December that he could face charges relating to his spell as Portsmouth chairman, his solicitors said he was “astounded and dismayed” at the CPS’s decision to take legal proceedings against him.
The shrewd Serbian-born businessman, who bought Portsmouth in 1998 and stayed eight years, poured money into the club, culminating in reaching the Premier League in 2003 under the managership of Harry Redknapp.
Mandaric’s solicitors say the money involved was a personal payment made to Redknapp in 2002 and that the charges would be “vigorously defended”.
In a statement in December, they said: “During a two-year investigation he has fully co-operated and has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.”
“Throughout a successful and respected 45-year international business career he has gained an impeccable reputation and has never been accused of the slightest wrongdoing, nor had his integrity called into question.
“Over the last 10 years in English football, the clubs that Mr Mandaric has invested in have employed hundreds of people and paid millions of pounds in taxes to HMRC.”
News of the charges against Mandaric will inevitably rekindle reports of a parallel investigation into Redknapp’s financial affairs which included him also being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.
Now manager at Tottenham Hotspur, Redknapp prided himself on his working relationship with Mandaric at Portsmouth and has likewise constantly denied any wrongdoing.
Before Christmas, Redknapp told a radio station that the whole affair was “”farcical” and not a major issue.
“It’s something that was done between myself and my ex-chairman, away from football,” he said.
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