Following a complaint made by the Manchester City midfielder, Patrick De Koster who is Kevin De Bruyne’s agent has been charged by Belgian police. Their issues were believed to have started in Belgium during the 2013-14 season, during which De Bruyne moved from Chelsea to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg in a €22m transfer, and involved the tax haven of Liechtenstein. An investigation has now revealed that the negotiated contract and the performance of that contract do not match.
In 2015, alongside his former business partner Didier Frenay, he pocketed a tenth of De Bruyne’s €75 million transfer fee from Wolfsburg to Manchester City. According to an account given by his lawyers, Belgian authorities from the Central Service for Combating Corruption (CDBC) raided De Koster’s offices in Knokke, Brussels and Senegal, where he runs J&S International Football Management. He was then detained to answer questions about events in 2013 and 2014.
A surprising part of the story is Kevin De Bruyne’s continued relationship with De Koster as his agent. In fact, he was almost already in talks on De Bruyne’s behalf over a new and improved contract with Manchester City. De Koster was transferred to prison on Friday and will remain in jail for the time being. The investigating judge Michel Claise, who specializes in fraud cases, is accusing him of forgery of documents, the use of false documents as well as money laundering.
Expectedly, his lawyer; Louis De Groote, has come to his defence. “My client is dumbfounded. He can’t believe it. We simply cannot understand why we waited until 2019 to file a complaint about facts from 2013 to 2014. Patrick De Koster continued to show himself in blind faith until Thursday to continue to observe the interests of certain people.
Then he must now establish that a complaint was lodged in 2019 by one or more people. That stuns him and hits him enormously. You can also ask yourself here how the conditions of parole were fulfilled for a fact from 7 years ago for someone who cooperates fully and has answered all questions. He and I are still convinced that he cannot be blamed under criminal law.”
