Watford have been fined almost £4million by the EFL after admitting that former chairman Raffaele Riva faked a bank letter in order to smooth the way for the takeover of current owner Gino Pozzo.
The Premier League club must pay £3.95m and £350,000 costs after an investigation by Ian Unsworth QC on behalf of the EFL in to the events of July 2014.
Riva faked a letter from the HSBC bank to the EFL [then the Football League] guaranteeing that Pozzo had enough funds to cover the transfer of ownership from his father Giampaolo.
The offence, committed just before the start of what transpired to be Watford’s promotion season from the Championship, came to light when a copy of the letter was leaked to the Daily Telegraph two years later.