Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo was scammed a staggering KSh 37 million (£250,000) by a female travel agent after he trusted her with his credit card pin, SunSport reports.
The culprit was 53-year-old Maria Silva, as reports further claim she also scammed the player’s agent Jorge Mendes out of over £14,000 (KSh 2.1 million) as well as more than £1,500 (KSh 226,000) from former Man Utd winger Nani. According to famous Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias, Maria Silva’s offence saw her handed a four-year suspended prison after being convicted in a 2017 sentence at a court in Porto.
The newspaper gathered that Cristiano Ronaldo was initially billed to attend her trial, but the striker was spared after she made a full confession.
The newspaper said the €288,000 (KSh 37 million) she scammed him out of – £245,770 – corresponding to around 200 trips he never made between Portugal and other European countries as well as Europe and Africa and the US. According to the player’s former teammate in the Portugal national team Simao Sabrosa, Ronaldo was among the victims that Maria transferred their cash into her private account instead of a company account as part of her fraud.