Jorge Messi’s death puts the fire in the business empire of his son based in Andorra

The death of Jorge Messi, Lionel Messi’s father and long-time representative, has once again brought attention to the business and financial history of the footballer’s family, including its ties to Andorra.

Jorge Messi died this Saturday at the age of 68 in Rosario, Argentina, following a period of health problems. His death has prompted numerous tributes from the football world and has also renewed interest in the man who managed a large part of his son’s career and business affairs for decades.

Against this backdrop, particular attention is being drawn to a financial investigation published in 2020 that had already placed Jorge Messi and a bank account in Andorra under scrutiny by Argentine authorities.

A $500,000 transfer

According to a confidential report prepared by investigators from Argentina’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), obtained at the time by the media outlet Metrópoli Abierta, investigators detected a Jorge Messi account in Andorra following a banking transaction carried out in Argentina.

The document stated that on August 15, 2018, Jorge Messi received a $500,000 transfer into an account at Banco de la Nación Argentina from an account based in Andorra.

What particularly caught the investigators’ attention was that the sender of the transfer was also listed as Jorge Horacio Messi, allowing the operation to identify one of the accounts with which, according to the investigation, the footballer’s father operated in Andorra.

The information published in 2020 linked the transaction to a broader UIF investigation into the financial operations of the Messi family and certain companies associated with its business activities.

The structure surrounding the Leo Messi Foundation

The report also examined the operations of the Leo Messi Private Foundation Argentina and its relationship with Limecu SA, a company linked to Jorge Messi and Celia María Cuccittini, the footballer’s mother.

According to the investigation, the two structures shared an address and maintained financial relationships. Among the transactions examined were payments from the Foundation to Limecu for the rental of the property used as its headquarters.

Investigators also questioned the Foundation’s accounting situation and examined whether certain transactions between related companies could explain why the financial years under review showed results close to zero.

The report further stated that Limecu had received significant amounts of funds during the years examined and that some of the transactions were related to the exploitation of Lionel Messi’s image and business interests.

An investigation that also pointed to companies abroad

The Argentine UIF expanded its investigation to other international corporate and financial structures. These included Hanns Enterprises, as well as an account located in Luxembourg.

The investigators’ objective was to determine the origin and movement of certain funds and establish whether there was a relationship between the transactions involving the companies, the Foundation and other international family businesses.

At the time, the investigation attracted attention precisely because of the international dimension of the structure and the use of companies and accounts located in different countries.

The Andorra connection comes back into focus

The identification of a Jorge Messi account in Andorra in that investigation now takes on renewed significance because of the family’s subsequent business ties to the Principality.

Lionel Messi currently has a business holding company based in Andorra, a structure that brings together different investments and businesses linked to the footballer.

The existence of the account attributed to Jorge Messi in the 2018 investigation and the subsequent establishment of part of Lionel Messi’s business structure in Andorra are, however, two separate events occurring at different times and should not be interpreted as necessarily forming part of the same operation or structure.

An episode from six years ago returns to the spotlight

The Argentine investigation was published in March 2020, but has now returned to the spotlight following Jorge Messi’s death and renewed interest in the Messi family’s relationship with Andorra.

It should be stressed that the information concerning the financial operations comes from an investigation by Argentina’s UIF, and that the suspicions and conclusions contained in that report should be attributed to the investigators. The existence of an account in Andorra and the $500,000 transfer were among the elements highlighted in the information published at the time, while the interpretations concerning the financial structure formed part of a broader investigation.

Jorge Messi’s legacy is therefore linked not only to his management of his son’s sporting career, but also to an international business history in which Andorra had already emerged as one of the financial locations identified by Argentine investigators years before Lionel Messi’s business structure established a corporate presence in the Principality.