The Provincial Court of the Balearics has sentenced a woman accused of embezzling more than three million euros from the sale of a property in Mallorca to FC Barcelona footballer Robert Lewandowski to two years in prison. The trial was scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning, but the defendant admitted the facts before it began and the parties reached a settlement agreement.
The woman has been sentenced to two years in prison, a fine of around €1,440 and the payment of €1.62 million to the partners of the company she allegedly defrauded as the perpetrator of the crimes of misappropriation and unfair administration. The court has agreed to suspend the prison sentence on condition that she does not reoffend and that she meets her civil liability payments, given that she has no previous convictions and the sentence does not exceed two years.
The sentence is final, as the parties involved have already announced that they will appeal, according to the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TJSIB). The events, as stated by the prosecutor in his indictment, took place in June 2021. The defendant, in her capacity as sole administrator of a company, formalised the sale of a property located in the Nova Santa Ponsa residential development - owned by the company - to Lewandowski.
The Polish striker, through his wife, proceeded at the same time as the public deed was drawn up to issue a cheque in favour of the company for the amount of €3.51 million, which was then deposited by the defendant into a current account that she herself had opened in the name of the company - of which she owned 25% of the shares - a few days earlier.
In the weeks following the deposit of the money, she made multiple bank transfers to transfer €3.1 million to her personal account without any justification. Furthermore, the sale of the property was carried out without the knowledge of the other owners of the company, who were not summoned to the mandatory general meeting of shareholders required by the law on capital companies.
Lewandowski plays as a striker for La Liga club Barcelona and captains the Poland national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time, he is one of only five players to have scored 100 goals with three different clubs, ranks third for the all-time top goalscorers in the UEFA Champions League (only behind Messi and Ronaldo) with 107 goals, and ranks third for the all-time European men’s top goal scorers in international football (88). He has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country.
Beginning his career in the third and second tiers of Polish football with Znicz Pruszków, Lewandowski moved to top-flight Lech Poznań, helping the team win the 2009–10 Ekstraklasa. In 2010, he transferred to Borussia Dortmund, where he won two consecutive Bundesliga titles and the league’s top goalscorer award. In 2013, he also featured with Dortmund in the 2013 UEFA Champions League final. Ahead of the 2014–15 season, Lewandowski joined Dortmund’s domestic rivals, Bayern Munich, on a free transfer. In Munich, he won the Bundesliga title in all of his eight seasons at the club and was integral in their Champions League win in 2019–20 as part of a treble.
Lewandowski was widely expected to win the 2020 Ballon d’Or, but it was not awarded due to the impact of COVID-19. In 2022, he moved to Barcelona, where he has since won two La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey, and the Pichichi Trophy; his Pichichi Trophy win made him the joint-record holder for most top scorer awards in Europe’s top five leagues with eight.