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This
info is taken from Reuters. We wish Michael all the best in this
little nightmare and will keep you informed during the investigation:
A
day after Ajax Amsterdam clinched a place in next season's Champions
League qualifying rounds, Dutch tax inspectors arrived at the club
to investigate allegations of irregular payments.
"Ajax is suspected by the tax inspectorate of having paid amounts
wich should have been considered as salaries," Ajax said in
a brief statement on Monday.
Public prosecutors in Amsterdam, who coordinated Monday's raid,
said their investigation concerned payments to two players Ajax
had signed.
Ajax later said the two were Georgian striker Shota Arveladze who
came to Ajax in 1997 and Danish midfielder Michael Laudrup, who
played for the Amsterdam club in the 1997-98
season.
"The suspicion is that the payments were presented as untaxed
transfer compensation rather than as wages," the public prosecutors
office said.
Public prosecutors said their criminal investigation, launched at
the end of 2000, had led them to search premises elsewhere in the
Netherlands and abroad. A number of people have been detained for
questioning.
Prosecutors say they suspect the tax authorities may have lost out
by as much as five million guilders ($2.0 million).
Former
Danish international Michael Laudrup and the general manager of
top Dutch club Ajax both denied any knowledge of irregularities
after tax investigators in the Netherlands swooped on the offices
of Ajax.
Five people
were arrested and held for questioning on Monday, including former
Ajax financial director Maarten Oldenhof, Ajax's Georgian player
Shota Arveladze and his brother Archil, according to the Dutch press
agency ANP.
The Amsterdam
club is suspected of making payments to two players as tax-free
transfer costs instead of wages, which are subject to taxation.
Ajax confirmed
in a statement that former Danish international Michael Laudrup
was subject to the investigation.
But Laudrup,
who was not among those arrested, was swift to deny any wrongdoing.
"I've
been contacted by the Dutch tax authorities," he added, without
saying whether they had visited him in Denmark. "It's regrettable
that my name has become mixed up in this affair, I've got nothing
to hide and my conscience is completely clear.
"But
I'm in the dark as to what agents implicated in my transfer might
have done," said the former Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid
striker.
"Nor
do I know anything concerning my transfer fee between Ajax and Kobe
. I wasn't involved and so I can't comment on this aspect of the
affair."
He has asked
that he be questioned after Denmark's World Cup qualifying matches
against the Czech Republic on June 2 and Malta on June 6.
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