Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis and son Luigi, the sole director of Bari, are at the centre of an investigation by the Bari Prosecutor’s office into alleged false accounting and fraudulent bankruptcy offences.
The offices of Bari and Filmauro, the company through which the De Laurentiis family owns both Bari and Napoli, were searched by authorities on Tuesday morning.
The investigation stems from an examination of the club’s financial records, which detailed operating losses of around €30m between 2019 and 2025, a substantial capital deficit and debt exposure with no credible restructuring plan in place.
Prosecutors believe that Bari’s poor financial situation was further worsened by a series of suspicious transactions, including the transfer of Elia Caprile.
De Laurentiis criticizes the investigation into Bari and Caprile
The De Laurentiis family have since had an opportunity to respond in a statement that was released on the Napoli website on Tuesday evening.
It reads: “SSC Bari, SSC Napoli, Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis were astonished to learn of the objections raised in the search and seizure decree that was ordered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Bari and was executed this morning.
“The investigators’ findings concern the transfer between the intra-group sale of a player, Elia Caprile, whose value had been quantified before the completion of the transaction, by means of a sworn appraisal from an independent third-party, an authoritative professional who is highly-accredited in the world of football and who had already been a consultant to the judicial authority.
“The request for judicial liquidation of SSC Bari, which was proposed by the same Public Prosecutor’s Office, is also stunning, given that it is a club that is respectful of its economic commitments and given that its operating losses are systematically covered by the ownership with its own resources.
“SSC Bari, SSC Napoli, Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis express, with calmness, their conviction that their position will be quickly clarified in front of the competent Judicial Authority, and hope that proceedings will swiftly be dismissed, taking into account the extreme seriousness with which the subjects involved operate, and have always operated, on a day-to-day basis, in full compliance with the law, accounting standards and federal regulations.”
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