Evidence of wrongdoing over Juve salaries - judge

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 1 - Turin preliminary investigations judge (GIP) Ludovico Morello has written that he agreed with prosecutors that there was "serious" evidence of wrongdoing related to how the Serie A club handled player payments in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    But Morello said he had denied prosecutors' requests last month for restrictive measures to be imposed on former chairman Andrea Agnelli and other people under investigation over the Turin giant's accounts because he did not consider there to be a risk of the crime being repeated.
    Agnelli quit as chairman this week along with the rest of the board amid a probe by Turin prosecutors into allegations that the club presented false information to investors about its accounts in recent years.
    Sources said Wednesday that prosecutors have requested that Agnelli and several other suspects be sent to trial.
    Investigators are looking into allegations that the Serie A club made secret salary payments after declaring that players had agreed to take wage cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The judge said Juventus may have acted in "good faith" in relation to another part of the probe regarding allegedly inflated earnings from player transfers.
    The accounts of the club, a listed company, have also come under the scrutiny of Italian stock-market regulator Consob, and the Italian Soccer Federation has opened a sporting probe into the case. (ANSA).