Police arrest man suspected of stealing £30,000 from Neymar as PSG star and other celebrities targeted in fraud scandal

POLICE have arrested a man suspected of stealing £30,000 from Neymar.

The 20-year-old has been held in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on suspicion of targeting the forward and other celebrities through fraudulent instant bank transfers known in Neymar’s homeland as PIX.

AFPNeymar was cheated out of more than £30,000 in an online banking fraud scandal[/caption]

Police say more than £30,000 was taken from the Paris Saint-Germain star in small amounts during different online transactions, although the account targeted is believed to be managed by Neymar’s dad.

Sao Paulo chief Fabio Pinheiro Lopes told local media: “He used the log-in of a colleague and allegedly began to steal small amounts of money from the accounts of famous people with high purchasing power.

“These people didn’t realise at all. He did one for £1,400, another for £2,800 and afterwards £7,000.

“Neymar’s case has a peculiarity because the person who transferred the money was a bank worker, someone who was employed by an outsourced firm hired by the bank.”

The financial institution has not been named.

Further arrests have not been ruled out but the missing cash has already been returned.

Neymar, believed to get paid £26million per year by PSG, has yet to make any official comment.

Last year it emerged a travel agent had cheated Cristiano Ronaldo out of nearly £250,000.

The 53-year-old, named in Portugal as Maria Silva, also scammed the football star’s super-agent Jorge Mendes for more than £14,000 and £1,500 from former Manchester United winger Nani.

Her wrongdoing culminated in her getting a four-year suspended prison sentence at a court in Porto.

Respected Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias said Ronaldo, 37, was spared having to attend her trial after she made a full confession.

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

The newspaper said the £245,770 he lost corresponded to around 200 trips he never made between Portugal and other European countries as well as Europe and Africa and the US.

Silva 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 Cristiano Ronaldo, who had given her a ‘virtual’ credit card and pin code, to ‘fill the hole’ in her company’s accounts,

She used the same tactic to rip off the likes of Jorge Mendes and his sports agency Gestifute for £36,000 and former Portsmouth and Everton footballer Manuel Fernandes for £2,440.