By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
May 27 – More details surrounding the seven arrests in Zurich this morning have been releasesd by US law authorities who have stepped up their assault on CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, its executives and associated marketing parties. The information details the nine FIFA officials and five company executives who have been “indicted for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption”.
A search warrant was also being executed this morning for CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, Florida.
A federal court in Brooklyn, New York, unsealed a 47-count indictment this morning “charging 14 defendants with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies”, said a US Department of Justice press release.
It also revealed four guilty pleas from individuals plus two corporate defendants. The four who pleaded guilt are former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer, two sons of former CONCACAF president Jack Warner (Daryll and Daryan). And Traffic Group owner José Hawilla. Hawilla agreed to forfeit over $151 million, $25 million of which was paid at the time of his plea.
The seven of the defendants charged in the indictment and arrested in Zurich on the request of the US authorities are: CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, Costa Rican president and new FIFA exco member Eduardo Li, former UNCAF (central America) and Nicaraguan president Julio Rocha, former Cayman Islands general secretary Costas Takkas, current FIFA exco member and former CONMEBOL president Eugenio Figueredo, Venezuelan president Rafael Esquivel and former Brazilian president José Maria Marin, at the request of the United States.
Former CONCACAF president Jack Warner and CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz were also indicted.
For those under arrest in Zurich the decision will be whether they consent to being extradicted to the US. No Swiss nationals have been arrested.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said of the allegations: “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.”
This dates back to the 1990s when Jack Warner was in his dictatorial pomp as head of CONCACAF. Not all of those indicted – Webb and Li in particular – were either involved at the top end of the sport or in a position to engineer benefit from commercial contracts at that time. Those charges have now been well documented but they are the first time to have been picked up by a law enforcement authority. It is ironic that Webb, who lead the campaign to clean-up CONCACAF and expose the dealings of Warner and Blazer via the CONCACAF integrity report, now finds himself indicted over alleged corruption surrounding a number of groundbreaking initiatives for the confederation he instigated.
The current charges go right up to the present day including FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the CONCACAF region, the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the CONCACAF Champions League, the jointly organised CONMEBOL/CONCACAF Copa América Centenario (to be played in the US next year), the CONMEBOL Copa América (played in 2014 in the US), the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores and the Copa do Brasil,
Many, if not most, of the commercial arrangements for the Copa Centenario in 2016 are still to be concluded. Gold Cup sponsorship deals are still in negotiation, with Traffic having announced two new deals last week with the promise of more to come. At this stage it is hard to see where the “racketeering” is taking place with these competitions as sponsor deals have not been concluded or monies transferred, though it may be the US is having a pre-emptive strike in advance of these competitions, or the authorities are on a fishing expedition.
The sports marketing executives indicted are Alejandro Burzaco, principal of Argentina’s Torneos y Competencias; Aaron Davidson, president of Traffic Sports USA; Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, principals of Argentina’s Full Play Group; and José Margulies, controlling principal of broadcast group Valente Corp. and Somerton Ltd.
The co-ordinated timing of the arrests in Zurich, a day before the opening of the FIFA Congress, and at the same time as the announcement of a Swiss investigation into 2018 and 2022, alongside police seizure of FIFA data from FIFA House is an indication of the heavyweight pressure US authorities can bring to bear when they feel their interests have been violated.
For FIFA’s voting members this Friday, when they gather to elect a new president, it appears a third and ominous big brother presence has entered their football deliberations as the US cleans up corruption in what it sees as its own jurisdiction in FIFA’s backyard.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734829780labto1734829780ofdlr1734829780owedi1734829780sni@n1734829780osloh1734829780cin.l1734829780uap1734829780