Ex-Italian professional footballer and Former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is fighting to recover a whooping £27 million he lost to a scammer in the UK.
According to The Times, the Italian is taking actions against Kidman Asset Management, after investing the huge amount in the company.
Along with seven other investors, Conte is taking action against the company’s chief, Massimo Bochicchio, after failing to receive the returns they say they’d been promised.
Bochicchio, has seen £47m worth of assets frozen, including the West London flat in which Conte lived during his Chelsea tenure.
The freezing injunction was granted by judge David Foxton on July 17 after Bochicchio was found to have “breached the terms of eight settlement deeds” that had been agreed with the investors back in May.
The claimants believed that their money would be guaranteed by HSBC, for whom Bochicchio worked between 2006 and 2012.
But in reality, the bank had nothing to do with the deals.
The former Chelsea coach who was successful in England, showed the court a faked document that had appeared to come from HSBC.
Lawyers also claimed that Bochicchio “agreed to hand over account statements, books and records from Kidman Asset Management” – but in fact did not do so.
And he has also failed to provide documentation proving “the nature of third parties” within the agreements, as well as where money was being spent – according to the lawsuit.
Failure to comply with the injunction could even see Bochicchio imprisoned if he is found to be contempt of court