Plan B Forum

FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges

ZURICH — Swiss authorities conducted an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges.

As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich. They went to the front desk to get room numbers and then proceeded upstairs.

The arrests were carried out peacefully. One FIFA official, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel. He was allowed to bring his luggage, which was adorned with FIFA logos.

The charges, backed by an F.B.I. investigation, allege widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well as marketing and broadcast deals.

Several hours after the soccer officials were apprehended at the hotel, Swiss authorities said they had opened criminal cases related to the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups —[Russia got the 2018 cup and Qatar got 2022...How could anyone think bribery was involved?] incidents that, more than any others, encapsulated FIFA’s unusual power dynamic. “In the course of said proceedings,” the Swiss officials said, “electronic data and documents were seized today at FIFA’s head office in Zurich.”

The Department of Justice indictment names 14 people on charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment also named sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments.

The soccer officials charged are Mr. Li, Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz.

The FIFA spokesman said that the case was a welcomed opportunity to clean up the organization, and that the group would cooperate with all inquiries.

Charges were also made against the sports-marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis. Authorities also charged José Margulies as an intermediary who facilitated illegal payments.

“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” said United States Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.

United States officials also revealed that four people, including the former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer, and two sports marketing companies had entered guilty pleas. Blazer forfeited $1.9 million when he entered his guilty plea in 2013, and agreed to make a second payment at sentencing.

With more than $1.5 billion in reserves, FIFA is as much a global financial conglomerate as a sports organization. With countries around the world competing aggressively to win the bid to host the World Cup, Mr. Blatter has commanded the fealty of anyone who wanted a piece of that revenue stream. He and FIFA have weathered corruption controversies in the past, but none involved charges of federal crimes in United States court.

United States law gives the Justice Department wide authority to bring cases against foreign nationals living abroad, an authority that prosecutors have used repeatedly in international terrorism cases. Those cases can hinge on the slightest connection to the United States, like the use of an American bank or Internet service provider.

Switzerland’s treaty with the United States is unusual in that it gives Swiss authorities the power to refuse extradition for tax crimes, but on matters of general criminal law, the Swiss have agreed to turn people over for prosecution in American courts.

A 47-count indictment was unsealed early this morning in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging 14 defendants with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants’ participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer. The guilty pleas of four individual defendants and two corporate defendants were also unsealed today....

...“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” said Attorney General Lynch. “It spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. And it has profoundly harmed a multitude of victims, from the youth leagues and developing countries that should benefit from the revenue generated by the commercial rights these organizations hold, to the fans at home and throughout the world whose support for the game makes those rights valuable.

Today’s action makes clear that this Department of Justice intends to end any such corrupt practices, to root out misconduct, and to bring wrongdoers to justice – and we look forward to continuing to work with other countries in this effort.” ...

...“Today’s announcement should send a message that enough is enough,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Currie. “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.”

"... There is some irony in the fact that this case is being brought by US federal prosecutors. The United States is famously uninterested in soccer, which lags behind (American) football, basketball, and baseball in popularity. So what's this case doing in a Brooklyn courthouse?

Part of the explanation is that many US federal laws have a global sweep — especially those that involve financial wrongdoing. As long as there is some "nexus" with the U.S. to provide jurisdiction, such as the involvement of a US financial institution or a US citizen, then US attorneys often can and do prosecute wrongdoing that took place primarily overseas. For instance, in 2014 former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo was sentenced to 6 years in US federal prison for laundering money through US banks. The corruption at the core of the case took place in Guatemala — Portillo was accused of using the office of the president as his "personal A.T.M." — but the nexus with US banks was enough for him to be prosecuted by US courts.

That's why the indictment focuses so much on what it refers to as the "centrality of the US financial system" to the alleged crimes: the use of U.S. financial institutions gives prosecutors jurisdiction to prosecute the cases.

But the FIFA case actually has much stronger connections to the United States than one might have guessed. One of the key players in the corruption scandal, Blazer, is a U.S. citizen: Bloomberg describes him as a "former Westchester soccer dad." One of the Traffic subsidiaries that already pled guilty was a U.S. corporation. CONCACAF's principle administrative office is in Miami. And soccer is growing more popular in the US, which has raised the value of the marketing rights that were obtained through bribes.

In other words, this isn't just a case of a federal prosecutor aggressively targeting conduct overseas. This is a case in which US individuals and a US company conspired to commit crimes with foreign co-conspirators, using U.S. financial institutions, in order to exploit U.S. and foreign markets. Viewed through that lens, it's not surprising that the Justice Department decided that this was a good use of U.S. federal resources. ... "

A bold, surprise move by the US on the world stage hasn't always been a recipe for global applause.



By indicting 14 top Fifa officials on corruption charges on Wednesday, however, the US government currently finds itself on the right side of much of the international media. "The parasites in Fifa who skimmed off millions - and the influence peddlers who tempted them - should be shown no mercy," write the editors of the Times of South Africa. "The Americans will have done the world a huge favour if their actions finally force Fifa to clean up its act."

The headline of a piece by Emmet Malone in the Irish Times proclaims: "US does football a service as Fifa's house of cards begins to collapse". Malone goes on to praise the "dogged" efforts of US tax authorities. Fifa is a "global behemoth", writes Politico Europe's Tunku Varadarajan, but the US is an even more powerful adversary. "FIFA has met its match … in the United States of America."

"God Bless America," he writes "It's perhaps the ultimate irony that one of the last countries on earth to fully embrace football is the one that has had the gumption to take a stand, and try and rid the game of what the US Department of Justice calls 'systemic' corruption."

It's a recurring theme - that the efforts to reform football's governing body have found an unlikely hero in a nation that is usually more interested in the on- and off-the-field machinations of a different, more heavily padded kind of football. According to Tufts University professor Daniel W Drezner, the Fifa story is providing a break in the clouds during what can otherwise be considered a dismal time for the US and its position on the world stage.

"We live in an age when foreign affairs pundits like to bemoan the crumbling of existing order and ponder whether the United States' best days are in the past, when rising powers seem more comfortable throwing their weight around than the US government," he writes in the Washington Post. "These are days when American scandals and dysfunction and economic stagnation seem to wrong-foot US foreign policy aspirations at every opportunity." He says this is one of those days, however, "when the United States is the greatest country in the world, because it makes stuff like this happen".

Not everyone has such a rosy view of the US actions, of course. Russian President Vladimir Putin made news on Thursday when he questioned US motivations behind the investigation, comparing it to the cases of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Others are less conspiratorial, but still see indications that the US is overstepping its jurisdictional bounds in the Fifa case. Bloomberg View's Noah Feldman says the arrests in Switzerland echo previous US "extraordinary renditions" and "secret terrorism arrests", which have often been condemned by other nations.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32909908

rubato wrote:The tiresome, and pedants, will point out that they are innocent until proved guilty. More rational people will have seen that the evidence is substantial and will be aware that a decision of a particular judge or jury can be widely at odds with the facts.


yrs,
rubato

Guinevere wrote:

rubato wrote:The tiresome, and pedants, will point out that they are innocent until proved guilty. More rational people will have seen that the evidence is substantial and will be aware that a decision of a particular judge or jury can be widely at odds with the facts.


yrs,
rubato

Due process = "tiresome pedantry". Every fact alleged is the same as proved. No need for evidence and testing the facts or even applying the law. It's the wesw method of argument come to life!

Now where is that eye-rolling icon of mine... Oh, yes, I've found it, right here:

"Absolute truth? What's that?"
"It's a five-to-four decision of the Supreme Court."

(Odd Bodkins by Dan O'Neill)