A judicial investigation in Barcelona has brought to light an alleged fraud related to cryptocurrencies and non -fungible tokens (NFTS), which could have affected thousands of people.
In the center of the case are Shirtum Europa Slu, a company that offered exclusive memories linked to elite soccer players through NFT and its Token, Shi. This had the visible support of former players linked to Sevilla FC and FC Barcelona, including Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gómez, Lucas Ocampos, Iván Rakitic, Nico Couple, Alberto Moreno and Javier Saviola.
Although players are not accused of managing the company, a complaint argues that their participation in the promotion of the project was key to generating confidence among buyers.
According to the complaintwhich was presented by twelve Spanish residents, the platform never operated as promised: The NFT turned out to be false, non -transferable or simply non -existentand Token had no real utility within the Shirtum ecosystem.
Behind the project are Argentine businessman David Rozencwaig and the Catalans Manel Ángel Torras, Marc Alberto Torras and Manuel Morillas. All face accusations for multiple crimes, including fraud, improper appropriation, money laundering, deceptive advertising, market manipulation and tax fraud.
The research also indicates the use of a business network with connections in Andorra, allegedly created to hide funds and evade taxes.
Barcelona’s Court of Instruction number 5 accepted the complaint for processing. The letter, presented on May 12 by the lawyer specialized in technological law Ricardo Oliva, has thirteen expert reports prepared by experts in cryptoactive, economy and forensic computer science.
One of these reports, signed by Prosper Lamothe Fernández Professor, points out that Token shi worked as an unregulated financial valuewhich could involve sanctions by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
The trail of money collected, which added several million euros in Binance Coin (BNB), never appeared in the official Shirtum accounting. According to the experts, a significant part of these funds was diverted to personal expenses. To justify the failure of the project, the promoters alleged robberies and hackeos through messages on Telegram, but did not file any formal complaint.
In parallel, Several of those involved began to erase any link with Shirtum on their social networks. In particular, Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gómez – who initially appeared as co -founder – eliminated any reference to the project, which has been interpreted by the complainants as an attempt to disconnect before the collapse of the initiative.
Another of the revelations of the investigation is that the number of affected could be much higher than initially estimated. Although during the ICO some 900 digital wallets were mentioned, a later analysis identified more than 11,000 wallets that came to receive the token. Today, the Shirtum website is still active, but offers no real functionality or refers to the use of cryptoactive.
In a sector where enthusiasm often surpasses the analysis, it is convenient to distrust campaigns based on famous faces and demand real transparency, beyond marketing. Before investing, it is essential to be clear what value is really acquiring and who are the ones who win if the project fails.
