Bastia president charged in financial probe

The president of French Ligue 1 strugglers Bastia, Pierre-Marie Geronimi, was on Wednesday charged with misappropriation of funds by police investigating the club's finances, a police source revealed. Geronimi, who had been taken into custody on Tuesday, was released on bail on Wednesday after being charged. He and his wife had initially been summoned to appear before police in the Corsican capital as part of a preliminary investigation into the movement of funds between Bastia and a vehicle leasing company of which Geronimi is the manager. The preliminary probe included the surveillance of fund movements carried out by the Anti-Money Laundering Unit of the Ministry of Finance. On Tuesday, a club statement expressed "its full confidence in President Pierre-Marie Geronimi and... that no irregularities originated from the club's accounts". "The sums which were paid by the club to its suppliers, in particular for the hiring of a minibus to transport youngsters from the youth training centre, were all well founded and justified." It continued: "The deal concerning the stadium with synthetic grass of the youth training centre located in Borgo, did not result in any wrongdoing or irregular cash flow." Bastia, who recently sacked coach Claude Makelele, are currently bottom of Ligue 1.