AC Milan is the most recent Serie A football team to be scrutinized by Italy's investigative authorities following raids on its headquarters as part of an investigation into its 2022 sale to American investment fund RedBird.
In recent seasons, police raids on club offices have become customary as financial scandals have engulfed Juventus, the most popular team in Italy, as part of a larger controversy surrounding player transfer profits in professional football.
The focus of Tuesday's raid on Milan's headquarters, located close to the famous San Siro stadium where they play their home games, was on Giorgio Furlani, the current CEO, and Ivan Gazidis, his predecessor.
Prosecutors in Italy's financial hub have not named Milan a club among their list of suspects about RedBird's purchase of the seven-time European champions for 1.2 billion euros (roughly $1.3 billion) from Elliott Management.
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According to reports, the prosecutors dispatched Italy's finance police to retrieve evidence from Gazidis and Furlani's residences and the club's headquarters.
The two are suspected of concealing from COVISOC, the Italian Football Federation's oversight body, that US fund Elliott kept control of Milan even after RedBird purchased the team.
After Chinese businessman Li Yonghong failed to pay back a loan he had taken out to purchase Milan from the late Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest the year before, Elliott acquired the team.
Elliott declared on Tuesday that the claim is untrue. RedBird purchased AC Milan on August 31, 2022. The Elliott funds had neither control nor an equity stake in AC Milan as of that date."
