How a Cypriot Bank Prevented Barcelona from Falling Victim to €1M Fraud Involving Lewandowski

Barcelona narrowly avoided losing €1 million in a fraud attempt involving Robert Lewandowski, thanks to the vigilance of a Cypriot bank.

The bizarre incident, which occurred in the summer of 2022, was recently revealed by the radio program SER Catalunya, shedding light on how the club nearly became a victim of a sophisticated scam.

The scam began when an unknown individual, impersonating Lewandowski’s representative, contacted Barcelona via email, asking for a commission payment. The email falsely claimed to be from Pini Zahavi, the agent of the Polish striker, and included bank account details for the club to transfer €1 million. The account holder’s name in the email was listed as “Michael Gerardus Hermanus Demon,” who presented himself as a lawyer.

Barcelona initially fell for the deception and authorized the transfer of the money to a bank account in Cyprus. However, the fraudulent scheme unraveled when the Cypriot bank flagged the transaction as suspicious. The account, which had been inactive and showed no prior mobility, lacked any supporting documentation to justify the payment. Recognizing the high risk, the bank blocked the disbursement of the funds.

Despite the scammer’s efforts to pressure the bank into releasing the money, including phone calls where he posed as Zahavi and threatening emails claiming he would report Barcelona to UEFA if the payment wasn’t made, the bank refused to relent. As a result, the €1 million was never released, and the funds were eventually returned to Barcelona. In October 2022, the fraudulent account was permanently closed.

Pini Zahavi, the real agent of Robert Lewandowski, confirmed that he had no involvement in the email and had never requested any commission payment. Zahavi, who had already received 10% (€10.4 million) as a commission for the player’s €104 million four-year contract, informed Barcelona that he was not behind the scam. He decided against filing a complaint, trusting that the club would take legal action instead.

Further investigations into the identity of "Michael Gerardus Hermanus Demon" revealed that the name did not belong to a registered lawyer in any European country. A man by that name, aged 51, was located in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and was found to have posted a photo of himself visiting Camp Nou on social media. However, it was unclear whether this individual was involved in the fraud, or if his identity had been stolen by the scammer to cover their tracks.

Thanks to the diligence of the Cypriot bank, Barcelona narrowly escaped losing a significant sum of money in this attempted fraud. 

By fLEXI tEAM