Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1288715
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 16 SEPTEMBER 2020 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA INTER coach Antonio Conte is part of a group of plaintiffs chasing over €33 million in a London court, mon- ey of which passed through a football agent's Maltese company. The former Chelsea and Juve coach obtained a worldwide freezing order from a London court on financier Massimo Bochicchio and his company Kidman Asset Management. The claimants are contending that a major fraud was perpetrated by Bo- chicchio on a €33.1 million settlement deal they were promised in June 2020, which sum has not been paid. Conte produced a direct depos- it transfer letter purporting to come from HSBC, whose authenticity the bank is doubting. When the investors were looking to redeem their investments in 2019 and 2020, they were met with evasive and inconsistent responses, assurances of imminent payment and, in some cas- es, assertions payments had already been made but no payments were forthcoming. The claimants believe the money was not invested as promised and that they were being fobbed off when they sought their money back. The London court said Bochicchio has a flat in London and various share- holdings in English companies, as well as assets abroad. "There is no clear picture at the moment of what other assets it holds, but there must be a real prospect that it holds some assets that represent the proceeds of the sums in- vested through it," the court said. According to court documents, Inter FC itself made out three transfers of €305,000 to an HSBC account in the name of Kidman Asset Management over 2016 and 2017, which money was destined to football agent Federico Pa- storello's Maltese company Sovi Inter- national. In Malta, Sovi is registered under the name of director Francesco Guarnie- ri, a lawyer who had been a director of Global Capital Financial Management in Malta until January 2020. Questions sent by Italian journalists from L'Espresso as to why the Inter transfers to Sovi were made in the name of Kidman Asset Management, went unanswered. Pastorello's work in the past with In- ter included the transfers of champion Romelu Lukaku, Samir Handanovic, Danilo D'Ambrosio, Antonio Can- dreva, Kwadwo Asamoah, Joao Mario, and Valentino Lazaro. Also seeking monies from Bochic- chio is former Manchester United player Patrice Evra, through his Lux- embourgish company Palesa SARL. Bochicchio was one of Palesa's four directors, while Evra was part of Pa- storello's client group for his Luxem- bourg football club. Another plaintiff is Luca Bascher- ini, owner of the London company Suprem Sports, for years one of Pas- torello's trusted collaborators for the transfer of football players. Football agent's Malta company named in Antonio Conte's hunt for €33 million KARL AZZOPARDI THE Maltese company running the international Hotjar platform has thrown out the Republican Na- tional Committee and the Trump-Pence campaign from its client list. Hotjar helps website administrators understand au- dience analytics and deciphering the behaviour of its users. The change in policy came after the company was in- formed that the Trump-Pence campaign merchandise website uses Hotjar. Further investigation showed the Hotjar account was being managed by the RNC and other GOP-related websites. Hotjar founder and CEO David Darmanin said his company had updated its policy to stop taking money from the RNC. "Donald Trump has said racist and hateful things as the evidence that anyone can access on the internet shows, as well as has taken a number of actions that have targeted marginalized groups. 'Make America Great Again' has become a rallying call of far-right groups across the United States, and statements like 'Build the wall and crime will fall' might not be linguis- tically racist, but they have become contextually rac- ist," he said. Darmanin said the Republican party's failure to call out the promotion of racism, division and discrimina- tion mean that the values displayed do not align with the company's values. "In the spirit of living our value of working with respect, we have decided to take action." Hotjar pointed out that while the account can be de- activated from their end to stop data collection, it is up to the account owner to take steps in removing track- ing script from their website. "We recognize that this decision may bring us some backlash, and it may result in divided reactions among our community – but we're willing to put ourselves in an uncomfortable position to stand by our values, and the promise we made to our team to uphold these values," the statement read. Maltese digital company dumps Trump Antonio Conte