Palermo: 'We were defrauded!'

By Football Italia staff

Palermo are in chaos once again, as the club claims it was “defrauded” by fake brokers of a Bulgarian insurance company and is set to go bankrupt.

The Sicilians have been hovering on the edge of destruction for several years now and Maurizio Zamparini’s sale to two different owners crumbled into dust.

The latest patrons had promised to turn things around and owner Salvatore Tuttolomondo assured the failure to present the financial guarantees by last night’s deadline was simply a “technical issue” and the paper copy had been posted with the date stamp.

However, today La Repubblica reported they contacted the Bulgarian insurance company that was meant to have acted as guarantor for Palermo’s outstanding money – Lev Ins Insurance Company – and found they had never been in contact with Palermo at all.

Once this was pointed out to Tuttolomondo, the situation unravelled rapidly, as it seems Palermo gave the money to a broker who claimed to be working with the Bulgarians, but in truth never dealt with them at all.

“What can we say? We’ve been defrauded,” director general Fabrizio Lucchesi told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We relied on the wrong people. We are now working to request a new guarantee and deposit that, then we’ll see what happens. The truth will emerge tomorrow, but what happened is truly incredible.

“We can’t keep going with these fraudsters.”

If Palermo cannot prove their financial stability, they won’t be allowed to register for the 2019-20 Serie B season and will be forced to begin again from Serie D with yet more new owners.

Venezia are hoping to be promoted back into Serie B in Palermo’s place.

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