Teh One Who Knocks
05-27-2015, 10:44 AM
FOX News and The Associated Press
http://i.imgur.com/7gkBCr8.jpg
Federal prosecutors unsealed a 47-count indictment early Wednesday that charged 14 people, including nine officials at international soccer's governing body, with racketing, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy dating back to the early 1990s.
The indictment was unsealed hours after seven soccer officials were arrested by Swiss authorities at a five-star hotel in Zurich ahead of the annual conference of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). Among those arrested were current FIFA vice presidents Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo, both members of FIFA's powerful executive committee.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other officials were scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday morning to discuss the charges.
Also among the people arrested in Zurich was Costa Rica soccer federation president Eduardo Li, according to the New York Times. He was later seen leaving the hotel in a car with law enforcement officials. Li was elected to the executive committee in March and was to have formally join the panel on Friday.
The others arrested were named as Julio Rocha, a FIFA development officer and former head of the Nicaraguan soccer federation; Costas Takkas, Webb's attache; Rafael Esquivel, the president of Venezuela's soccer federation; and José Maria Marin, member of the organizing committee for Olympic soccer tournaments and former president of Brazil's soccer federation.
Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) confirmed the arrests, but did not specify that all were members of FIFA. Four non-FIFA members named in the indictment were described as sports marketing executives, while another man was described as an "intermediary [who arranged] illicit payments between sports marketing executives and soccer officials."
FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not named in the indictment. Blatter, 79, was expected to be elected to a fifth term as FIFA president Friday. Blatter made no immediate comment on the arrests, though FIFA said Wednesday that the election would go ahead as planned.
Blatter's only opponent in Friday's presidential election, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, said it was "a sad day for football," but declined to comment further.
In addition to his role within FIFA, Jeffrey Webb is also the president of CONCACAF, one of FIFA's six regional confederations. CONCACAF oversees all aspects of international soccer in North America, the Caribbean, and Central America. Webb was seen by some as a possible successor to Blatter.
A Justice Department statement accused the defendants of "conspiring to solicit and receive well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for their official support of the sports marketing executives who agreed to make the unlawful payments."
"Today's announcement should send a message that enough is enough," said Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Currie in a statement. "After decades of what the indictment alleges to be brazen corruption, organized international soccer needs a new start - a new chance for its governing institutions to provide honest oversight and support of a sport that is beloved across the world, increasingly so here in the United States. Let me be clear: this indictment is not the final chapter in our investigation."
The Justice Department also said Wednesday that authorities were executing a search warrant at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami.
The FOJ said in a statement that U.S. authorities suspect the six officials of having received or paid bribes totaling millions of dollars and that the crimes were agreed to and prepared in the U.S., and payments carried out via U.S. banks.
A statement in German added that the probe involved tournaments in the United States. It was not clear if one of those tournaments was the 1994 World Cup, which was hosted by the United States.
"We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did," The Times quoted a U.S. law enforcement official as saying. "It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized."
CONCACAF reported itself to U.S. tax authorities in 2012. Then based in New York, the organization had not paid taxes over several years when Jack Warner, of Trinidad and Tobago, was its president and Chuck Blazer of the U.S. was its secretary general.
Warner, who is one of the nine soccer officials named in the indictment, left FIFA and CONCACAF in 2011 to avoid sanctions in a bribery case. Blazer left in 2013 and cooperated with the FBI's investigation. The Justice Department statement said Blazer had pleaded guilty in November of that year to charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and income tax evasion.
FIFA has been dogged by accusations of corruption in recent years, most of it related to the bidding to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Host rights for those tournaments were awarded in December 2010 to Russia and Qatar, countries which have been heavily criticized for their human rights record. Qatar's use of migrant labor to build the stadiums and other infrastructure to host the tournament has come under particular attack from advocacy groups.
http://i.imgur.com/7gkBCr8.jpg
Federal prosecutors unsealed a 47-count indictment early Wednesday that charged 14 people, including nine officials at international soccer's governing body, with racketing, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy dating back to the early 1990s.
The indictment was unsealed hours after seven soccer officials were arrested by Swiss authorities at a five-star hotel in Zurich ahead of the annual conference of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). Among those arrested were current FIFA vice presidents Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo, both members of FIFA's powerful executive committee.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other officials were scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday morning to discuss the charges.
Also among the people arrested in Zurich was Costa Rica soccer federation president Eduardo Li, according to the New York Times. He was later seen leaving the hotel in a car with law enforcement officials. Li was elected to the executive committee in March and was to have formally join the panel on Friday.
The others arrested were named as Julio Rocha, a FIFA development officer and former head of the Nicaraguan soccer federation; Costas Takkas, Webb's attache; Rafael Esquivel, the president of Venezuela's soccer federation; and José Maria Marin, member of the organizing committee for Olympic soccer tournaments and former president of Brazil's soccer federation.
Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) confirmed the arrests, but did not specify that all were members of FIFA. Four non-FIFA members named in the indictment were described as sports marketing executives, while another man was described as an "intermediary [who arranged] illicit payments between sports marketing executives and soccer officials."
FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not named in the indictment. Blatter, 79, was expected to be elected to a fifth term as FIFA president Friday. Blatter made no immediate comment on the arrests, though FIFA said Wednesday that the election would go ahead as planned.
Blatter's only opponent in Friday's presidential election, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, said it was "a sad day for football," but declined to comment further.
In addition to his role within FIFA, Jeffrey Webb is also the president of CONCACAF, one of FIFA's six regional confederations. CONCACAF oversees all aspects of international soccer in North America, the Caribbean, and Central America. Webb was seen by some as a possible successor to Blatter.
A Justice Department statement accused the defendants of "conspiring to solicit and receive well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for their official support of the sports marketing executives who agreed to make the unlawful payments."
"Today's announcement should send a message that enough is enough," said Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly Currie in a statement. "After decades of what the indictment alleges to be brazen corruption, organized international soccer needs a new start - a new chance for its governing institutions to provide honest oversight and support of a sport that is beloved across the world, increasingly so here in the United States. Let me be clear: this indictment is not the final chapter in our investigation."
The Justice Department also said Wednesday that authorities were executing a search warrant at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami.
The FOJ said in a statement that U.S. authorities suspect the six officials of having received or paid bribes totaling millions of dollars and that the crimes were agreed to and prepared in the U.S., and payments carried out via U.S. banks.
A statement in German added that the probe involved tournaments in the United States. It was not clear if one of those tournaments was the 1994 World Cup, which was hosted by the United States.
"We’re struck by just how long this went on for and how it touched nearly every part of what FIFA did," The Times quoted a U.S. law enforcement official as saying. "It just seemed to permeate every element of the federation and was just their way of doing business. It seems like this corruption was institutionalized."
CONCACAF reported itself to U.S. tax authorities in 2012. Then based in New York, the organization had not paid taxes over several years when Jack Warner, of Trinidad and Tobago, was its president and Chuck Blazer of the U.S. was its secretary general.
Warner, who is one of the nine soccer officials named in the indictment, left FIFA and CONCACAF in 2011 to avoid sanctions in a bribery case. Blazer left in 2013 and cooperated with the FBI's investigation. The Justice Department statement said Blazer had pleaded guilty in November of that year to charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and income tax evasion.
FIFA has been dogged by accusations of corruption in recent years, most of it related to the bidding to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Host rights for those tournaments were awarded in December 2010 to Russia and Qatar, countries which have been heavily criticized for their human rights record. Qatar's use of migrant labor to build the stadiums and other infrastructure to host the tournament has come under particular attack from advocacy groups.