Brazil’s Neymar has been fined $3.3 million for an illegal artificial lake

SAO PAULO –

Brazilian footballer Neymar was fined more than $3.3 million for violating local environmental regulations during renovations to his mansion in the town of Mangaratiba outside Rio de Janeiro.

Mangaratiba City Hall said in a statement Monday evening that it had imposed four fines totaling about 16 million Brazilian reals after Neymar was accused of illegally building an artificial lake near his mansion.

“Among the dozens of infractions noted on the player’s property are the commencement of unauthorized construction requiring environmental control; capturing a river course and rerouting it without permission; moving rocks and sand; suppressing vegetation without consent and non-compliance with an embargo,” the statement said.

A town hall document obtained by The Associated Press says the latest charge is linked to Neymar’s decision to swim in the artificial lake, despite local authorities showing up to ban him from that area due to environmental concerns. “That is why the athlete was fined again,” it says.

“The footballer was at the mansion on Friday and went into the lake, ignoring the ban issued by the (environmental) secretariat and the local police, which appeared there the day before,” the document said.

Brazilian media reported on Friday that Neymar threw a party that day to celebrate the completion of the artificial lake.

A spokesman for Neymar, 31, declined to comment on the matter at the request of the AP. The Paris Saint-Germain striker can appeal the decision, which will be handed over to police for possible prosecution.

The company that built the artificial lake, Genesis Ecossistema, celebrated the 10-day job on its social media channels. It said the lake is 1,000 square meters (10,764 square feet).

The 46-page town hall document shows that Neymar has received the maximum fine for each of the offenses he is accused of.

It was signed by the city’s attorney general and also said the footballer’s father, Neymar da Silva Santos, had verbally insulted local authorities last week when they came to the mansion to halt construction work.

Mangaratiba City Hall said the illegal construction work has cost Neymar about 120,000 Brazilian reals ($25,000).

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