FC Nantes was indicted on September 21 as a legal entity represented by its president, Waldemar Kita, Rennes public prosecutor Philippe Astruc told AFP, confirming information from the newspaper West France. Owner of the FCN since 2007, Waldemar Kita was taken into police custody at the end of June, as well as his son Franck Kita, deputy general manager of the club, and two other people.
The president of the club was released without prosecution at the time but his son and the two other people were indicted, in particular for money laundering, aggravated money laundering, laundering of tax fraud and exercise of the activity of sports agent without a valid license . According to the local press, in addition to Franck Kita the two people indicted are Bakari Sanogo and Joaquim Batica, agents of certain Nantes players. FC Nantes was in turn indicted in September for acts between January 2015 and July 2022, according to Philippe Astruc.
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Contestation and promotion of “a certain ethics” by President Kita
The club is thus suspected of having “been complicit in the offense of exercising the activity of sports agent without a valid license, its governing bodies giving instructions to commit the offense“, notably “by establishing false scouting contracts and erroneous mentions on player contracts aimed at remunerating the services of sports agents that they knew were illegal“, explains the prosecutor.
He is also accused of having “in Nantes, Reims, on the national, Malian, Luxembourg territory“, participated in the concealment or conversion of the proceeds of a crime or offense, in this case “illegal exercise of the activity of sports agent” in an organized gang. Waldemar Kita “vigorously contests the alleged facts” and highlighted a certain “ethics” of “pharmacy world” where it comes from, specifies the Rennes prosecutor, where the procedure is centralized.