Vitorio Piffero, former president of Internacional, and Pedro Affatato, former vice-president of finance, were sentenced this Thursday (21) to prison for crimes of embezzlement of funds from the club’s management between 2015 and 2016. According to investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rio Grande do Sul, the amount diverted was more than R$13 million.
The decision published by the TJ-RS (Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul) sentenced Piffero to 12 years and three months in prison, with payment of 135 minimum wages in fines for the crimes of money laundering and embezzlement.
For the same crimes and an additional charge of criminal organization, Affatato was sentenced by the 2nd State Court for the Process and Trial of Crimes of Criminal Organization and Money Laundering of the TJ-RS to 76 years, one month and 15 days in prison and payment of 675 minimum wages.
Piffero’s defense says he is innocent and that there is not enough evidence to convict him. Affatato’s lawyer informed that she will appeal the decision and will speak out in the case file. Both will appeal the decision freely.
According to judge Ricardo Petry Andrade’s decision, Piffero’s actions caused a loss of R$281,686 to the club.
The MP-RS complaint points out that the irregularities involve the falsification of invoices from travel agencies for services never provided. The amounts were paid by the club and would have been returned in cash to the directors.
The investigations showed that the amounts covered the purchase of a high-end car for Piffero and Affatato’s stay at the Copacabana Palace to spend New Year’s Eve in Rio de Janeiro, among other expenses.
This is the second conviction of the former president and former vice-president of Colorado as part of the Rebote operation, launched in 2018 to investigate deviations in the second management of Piffero, who presided over the club for the first time between 2007 and 2010.
The leaders became defendants in 2019, and the first conviction came in March of this year. Piffero was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison, and Affatato, to 19 years and eight months, in the trial of suspected deviations in works that were not carried out.
Piffero’s second management was marked by the first relegation in Internacional’s history to Series B, in 2016. The following year, Inter’s supervisory board requested the disapproval of his management’s accounts. An external investigation, which was the trigger for the criminal complaint, found evidence of spending of around R$9 million on works never carried out at the Beira-Rio stadium. When contacted, the club’s current management said they would not comment at the moment.
