Until very recently, Ronaldinho was synonymous with joy. A crack that enchanted the world thanks to a huge talent that allowed him to make unimaginable plays. The genius of magnetic smile which also generated a rare sympathy until among the most fierce rivals. A culé capable of leaving standing applauded for Santiago Bernabeu puzzled by his genius. An inspiration for a whole generation. Even for one of the few who can say that he was better than him, Messi. But if Ronaldinho was able to haggle down to the pitch, off the pitch, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira has not had the same success to untangle itself from the marking of the Law.
Stopped from the past 6th of March for possession and use of forged Paraguayan passports, the former soccer player turns 40 today, imprisoned, in Asunción. He and his brother, the also former player Roberto de Assis, is it so under investigation for various crimes. His arrest has uncovered a corruption network in Paraguay that has already led to imprisonment from 15 other people accused of tax evasion, money laundering or manufacturing of falsified documents.
Since the day that Police went after him In a luxury hotel in the Paraguayan capital, Justice has rejected three requests from conditional freedom or house arrest presented by their lawyers. The judge considers that there is “high risk of leakage of the country “and that Ronaldinho must remain in prison because” his freedom could jeopardize the integrity of the investigation. “
Yes for him rest of the world the mess in which Ronaldinho has entered Paraguay has been a big surprise, in Brazil, not so much. He and his brother carry years involved in different court battles. In southern Brazil, where the Assis family has its operations and business headquarters, there are eight lawsuits against the brothers, including millionaire tax debts, in addition to rents and rates of real estate communities and luxury commercial premises in a situation of unpaid.
Arrested and handcuffed in Paraguay.
JORGE ADORNO / REUTERS
Background. Since november 2019 there is a class action lawsuit against the former player and five other partners of the company '18K Ronaldinho', accused of an alleged pyramid scam that promised profits of up to 2% a day through investment in a cryptocurrency. Around 800 investors report losses of approximately 65 million euros. The company had no registration with the Transferable Securities Commission (CVM), which governs the investment market in Brazil.
It's not the first time that Ronaldinho looks involved in a financial scam. In 2014 the former player partnered with another cryptocurrency investment firm, “Panela FC”, which the CVM ordered to close a year later for considering that there were irregularities and illegalities in the system used.
Ronaldinho had to pay more € 2M of fines for four lawsuits for environmental crimes. The former player had his passport seized and 57 properties blocked. During the process, the Prosecutor's Office intervened their accounts and he found only € 5 even though he came to be on the list of the richest footballers in the world, with a accumulated fortune of about € 83M, According to the magazine Forbes, in 2015.
“His only mistake was have used the passport, even if he had done it in good faith, “explains his lawyer, Sergio Queiroz, by phone from Asunción. The lawyer assures that Ronaldinho thought that the passports were “a gift” that “they had been legally issued”. “He accepted the documents as assumed Spanish nationality at the time, did not imagine that they were false “, Queiroz testifies, which denies that the former player had tried to obtain the papers to make investments in the country.
At the moment, the lawyer waiting that the investigation on the mobile phones of the player and his brother show that both are not involved in the other crimes that were uncovered by the Paraguayan Justice and that may “pay the corresponding fines for the crime of use of false documents“and get out of jail” as soon as possible. “The problem is that the closure of borders and the suspension of activities of Justice for the coronavirus have delayed still more the process that, according to Queiroz, “is absolutely abusive”. At the mercy of what the Justice dictates, Ronaldinho will spend his 40th birthday away from the spotlights where it shone like few others. Between bars. No fame, no glamor. With his image and legacy sunk.