By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson in Zurich
May 27 – Dawn raids at a Zurich hotel have plunged FIFA into crisis with the reported arrest of six officials by Swiss law enforcement authorities. No sooner had news of the arrests been made than FIFA was hit by a second bombshell within a few hours when the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) announced it has opened criminal proceedings in connection with the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups “against persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and money laundering”.
The two investigations are separate and look to be unrelated. As part of the World Cup investigation the OAG said in a statement that the “Swiss Federal Criminal Police will be questioning 10 persons who took part in voting on the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as members of the Executive Committee in 2010.”
Swiss law enforcement officers today seized electronic data and documents from FIFA’s Zurich headquarters in what is described as a “collection of evidence on a cooperative basis”. The files that were taken, in addition to bank documents collected from Swiss banks, will “serve criminal proceedings both in Switzerland and abroad”, said an OAJ statement.
Baur au Lac arrests
The identities of those arrested are currently unconfirmed, but it is believed that among those arrested at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich were: CONCACAF president and FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb; former President of the Uruguayan Football Association and former President of CONMEBOL, Eugenio Figueredo; Costa Rican FA president Ricardo Li, recently elected to FIFA’s executive committee and due to attend his first meeting this week; and Brazilian FA president Jose Maria Marin.
The six individuals detained are being investigated in connection with up to $100 million of money transfers organised from the US, with American banks involved in the payments. The crimes potentially go all the way back to the early 1990s.
The names of former CONCACAF president Jack Warner and Nicolas Leoz have also been mentioned but they are no longer FIFA executives and are not in Zurich. A further list of sports marketing executives who are expected to be questioned in relation to the allegations has been published, some of whom are US residents.
A Swiss Federal Office of Justice statement said the six officials, were suspected by US investigators of having received or paid bribes totalling millions of dollars.
“The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kickbacks between the early 1990s and the present day,” the statement said.
“The bribery suspects – representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms – are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the football functionaries – delegates of FIFA and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organisations – totalling more than US$100 million.”
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