Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo was scammed a staggering £250,000 by a female travel agent after he trusted her with his credit card pin.
The culprit is a 53-year-old Maria Silva, as reports further claim she also scammed the player’s agent Jorge Mendes out of over £14,000 as well as more than £1,500 from former Man Utd winger Nani. Maria Silva’s offence saw her handed a four-year suspended prison sentence at a court in Porto according to famous Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias.
The newspaper gathered that Cristiano Ronaldo was initially billed to attend her trial, but the striker was spared after she made full confession.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner provided statement to the police after he flew to Porto in a private jet to meet with his lawyer Carlos Osorio de Castro.
The newspaper said the €288,000 she scammed him out of – £245,770 – corresponded to around 200 trips he never made between Portugal and other European countries as well as Europe and Africa and the US.
According to the player’s former teammate in the Portugal national team Simao Sabrosa, Ronaldo was among the victims that Maria transferred their cash into her private account instead of a company account as part of her fraud.
The statement added via Mirror: “Afterwards the travel agent had to plug the hole in the firm’s accounts.
“She therefore began to bill those trips to Cristiano Ronaldo, who had an account at Geostar and for practical reasons, handed the agent a virtual credit card and pin code.”
