The facts refer to theinvestigation opened by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office last March, which led to searches of the Casa Milan headquarters and the inclusion of the current AC Milan CEO Giorgio Furlani and his predecessor Ivan Gazidis in the register of suspects. On charges of “obstructing the exercise of the functions of the supervisory authority for communications to the FIGC on the real owners of the company during Operation RedBird”. In essence, the suspicion feared by the Milanese prosecutors is that the sale of the majority stake in Milan – formalized on 31 August 2022 – from the Elliott fund to RedBird for 1.2 billion euros was a “fictitious” financial operation, which actually allowed Elliott to maintain operational control of the club through the vendor loan of around 600 million euros granted to RedBird owner Gerry Cardinale (which will expire by 31 December 2025) and the inclusion of several men linked to Elliott.
On the same day as the notification of the opening of the investigations against Milan and its managers, the Rossoneri club had published this statement: “Regarding the search which took place today in its headquarters, the AC Milan company is third and unrelated to the ongoing proceedings which concerns the acquisition of the same, completed in August 2022. The investigation, which also involves the legal representatives with signing power, Giorgio Furlani and Ivan Gazidis, current and previous CEO of the Club, hypothesizes incorrect communications to the competent authority of vigilance. The company is cooperating fully with the investigating authority.”
For its part, the fund Elliott owned by Paul Singer had made an official denial regarding the accusations made against him: “We note reports of investigations into the current and former CEO of Milan in relation to the allegation that the club ‘still belongs to Elliott, and that this has been hidden from the Football Federation’. This accusation is false. Milan was sold to RedBird on 31 August 2022. As of that date, Elliott no longer has any shareholding or control over AC Milan.”
In the days immediately following the notification of the investigation against Milan by the ordinary judiciary, the documents were progressively transmitted – as per practice – to the office of the FIGC prosecutor Giuseppe Chiné, to evaluate possible elements for the opening of sporting proceedings against the Rossoneri club. Elements which evidently were not sufficient and led the Football Federation to dismiss all types of accusations regarding the real ownership of Milan.
