One lawyer has revealed that up to £70 million of Diego Maradona’s fortune is missing, claiming that ‘hangers-on’ could have stolen his riches.
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What happened to Maradona’s money?
The late footballer was said to have as much as £75 million before he passed. But now, his children are left to fight over less than £5 million.
Mario Baudry, acting as a lawyer for Maradona’s seven-year-old son Diego Fernando revealed: ‘There's been talk of £75 million but only just over £4 million has appeared in bank accounts along with a small apartment, an old house Diego owned and two cars.’
Diego earned a lot of money but the problem is he didn't have it. The expense reports haven't appeared so we don't know if he spent it or if others spent it or whether it's somewhere we don't know yet.
Baudry also claimed that Maradona had a fingerprint-secured home safe, but there was evidence that the safe had been tampered with: ‘Diego thought only he could open it but anyone who touched it could.’ He continued:
As Diego gave people power of attorney, they opened accounts and worked in his name. In Dubai he had designer watches that came with a card and a serial number. We've got 14 cards but no watches. Someone took them.
Baudry, who broke the news of the potential thievery on Argentinian TV, reiterated that he wasn’t pointing fingers but so far there is no evidence to show that Maradonna spent the money:
If he earned the millions he did, where has it gone? If Diego spent it, and hopefully that's the case, there's no problem. His heirs will rest easy if they're shown that happened. But at the moment there is no paperwork to prove it.
Baudry, who is now dating Maradona’s ex-girlfriend and Fernando’s mum Veronica Odeja, continued:
Diego's lawyer Matias Morla has said his children were going to inherit fortunes, that there were hotels, a pasta factory and other businesses in Cuba and Venezuela but we've seen nothing so far to back that up.
So far suspicions have been raised with Rocio Oliva, Maradona’s on-off girlfriend for the past seven years. Last month the star was accused of using Maradona’s credit cards after he died, sparking an ugly war with Odeja. In the past, Maradona himself also accused Oliva of stealing hundreds and thousands of pounds worth of valuables from his Dubai mansion. However, after the two patched things up he dropped the complaint.
More suspicious circumstances
Maradona's death was a day of despair for his fans. The former footballer passed away last November after suffering a heart attack in Buenos Aires two weeks prior. However, not everyone believes that Maradona's death was a natural one. A recent search of Leopoldo Luque's home—the man who acted as Maradona’s doctor during his last days—also found a number of forged Maradona signatures. The investigation was conducted after prosecutors belived the football hero’s death may have been a result of medical negligence.
Additionally, the former Naples star was recognised to have five children to four different women. But, days after his death, teen Santiago Lara and two other Argentinians demanded the exhumation of the celebrity’s body, claiming that he was their father.
Mariano Israelit, a lifelong friend of Maradona revealed:
When Diego returned from Mexico in 2019 he told me he had more than 100 million dollars. I'd love it if his children were the ones who inherited it but I don't know where that money is now.
