How Travel Agent Allegedly Scammed Ronaldo Of £250,000

Manchester United forward, Cristiano Ronaldo has been scammed of a whooping sum of £250,000 by his travel agent, Maria Silva.

The 53-year-old, also scammed the football star’s super-agent Jorge Mendes out of more than £14,000 and former United winger Nani out of more than £1,500.

Her wrongdoing led to her getting a four-year suspended prison sentence at a court in Porto, respected Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reported on Sunday.

The newspaper revealed dad-of-four Cristiano, 36, was spared having to attend her trial after she made a full confession.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner gave a statement to police after flying to Porto by private jet and meeting up with his lawyer Carlos Osorio de Castro.

The previously-unreported scandal was laid bare by Jornal de Noticias in an expose about greedy Silva’s breach of the trust Cristiano placed in her by giving her his credit card details and pin codes.

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.

She reportedly carried out the fraud by getting clients to transfer cash for travel she arranged for them to her personal account instead of the business account of the travel agency she worked for.

She then billed those trips to the accounts of victims like Ronaldo, who had given her a ‘virtual’ credit card and pin code, to “fill the hole” in her company’s accounts, the report in Jornal de Noticias said.

The newspaper reported she used the same tactic to rip off the likes of Mendes, his sports agency Gestifute, Nani and former Portsmouth and Everton footballer Manuel Fernandes.