Nine FIFA Officials and Five Corporate Executives Indicted for Racketeering Conspiracy and Corruption — Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) May 27, 2015
US Justice Department and FBI comments on the FIFA Investigation
That FIFA has been a hotbed of corruption, shady backroom dealings and outright crime for years, has been known to anyone with even a passing interest in football. Which is why we were surprised to learn this morning that none other than the US Attorney General, seemingly content with all the wristslaps handed out to criminal US foreign banks (and subsequent SEC waivers) gave FIFA the red card in a charge detailing “rampant” corruption in international soccer hours after 14 officials were arrested on accusations of a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through FIFA, whose office was searched in a series of dawn raids in Zurich.
The US charge was announced alongside of a Swiss criminal probe related to the controversial 2010 award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively, hours after seven soccer officials were arrested and 14 indicted in Zurich, concurrent with a raid on the soccer body’s hilltop office in Zurich. The case involves bribes “totaling more than US$ 100 million” linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for soccer tournaments in the United States and Latin America, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in a statement.
The U. S. Department of Justice said in a statement that two current FIFA vice presidents were among those arrested, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay. The others are Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, Julio Rocha of Nicaragua, Costas Takkas of Britain, Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Jose Maria Marin of Brazil. All seven are connected with the regional confederations of North and South America and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of racketeering.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 05/27/2015.
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