The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FIFA corruption scandal

  • U.S makes FIFA extradition request

    U.S makes FIFA extradition request

    The United States has asked Switzerland to extradite seven FIFA officials arrested on corruption charges in May, Swiss authorities have said.

    Formal extradition requests were submitted on Wednesday, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said.

    The seven top FIFA executives arrested in Zurich are among 14 officials indicted on charges of “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted” corruption, the BBC reports.

    The charges follow a major inquiry by the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    The FOJ said Zurich police, acting on its behalf, would give the seven officials a hearing over the extradition requests.

    The officials and their lawyers would have 14 days to respond to the request, which could be extended “if sufficient grounds exist,” the FOJ statement said.

    After that, the FOJ would give its decision “within a few weeks”, but warned of a lengthy process as any ruling could be challenged in both the federal criminal court and the federal supreme court.

    Jeffrey Webb, FIFA vice-president in charge of North and Central America, was among those arrested by Swiss police in a raid on a luxury hotel in the early hours of May 27

    They are currently being held in prisons around the Zurich region.

    The suspects are among 14 defendants the U.S has charged with racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies.

     

  • ‘Swiss banks reported FIFA account’

    ‘Swiss banks reported FIFA account’

    Swiss banks reported suspicious activity around accounts of football’s world governing body FIFA, the country’s attorney general has said.

    Michael Lauber said his office was analysing a “huge amount” of seized FIFA data in its corruption inquiry, the BBC reports.

    The attorney general said he did not rule out interviews with FIFA president Sepp Blatter as part of his investigation.

    The investigation could lead to the reopening of the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

    FIFA is facing claims of widespread corruption after Swiss police raided a hotel in Zurich – where FIFA is based – and arrested seven of its top executives last month.

    The seven were held at the request of the United States department of justice, which has charged 14 current and former FIFA officials and associates on charges of “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted” corruption.

    The charges follow a major inquiry by the FBI.

    Until now, much less has been revealed about the Swiss investigation than the inquiry being led by the FBI.

    But if Swiss investigators do prove that bribes changed hands in the bidding contests, Russia and Qatar could lose their hosting rights to the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

    Mr. Lauber told a news conference that his investigation was looking at 53 banking relationships reported by the Swiss financial intelligence unit.

     

  • ‘Mbeki approved $10m payment to FIFA’

    ‘Mbeki approved $10m payment to FIFA’

    South Africa’s Sports Minister, Fikile Mbulula, said the decision to donate $10million (£6.5m) to FIFA to develop Caribbean football was approved by former President Thabo Mbeki.

    The payment, which South Africa denied was a bribe to secure the 2010 World Cup, is central to the FIFA scandal, the BBC reports.

    The claim came after a letter emerged that appears to show officials seeking an indirect route for the transfer.

    South Africa’s government said the letter did not contradict its statement that this was a legitimate payment.

    It said the cash was to fund the development of football for the African diaspora in the Caribbean and that the reporting of the letter in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian was “regurgitation and sensation.”

    The letter was written by then South Africa Football Association head, Danny Jordaan, three weeks before the first amount was paid in 2007.

    United States prosecutors said the money, which is a key plank in the wide-ranging criminal inquiry that has engulfed world football’s governing body, was a bribe to FIFA officials.

    Seven top FIFA officials, including two vice-presidents, were arrested last week in Switzerland as they awaited FIFA’s congress.

    They were among 14 new indictments in the U.S investigation, which alleges they accepted bribes and kickbacks estimated at more than $150million over a 24-year period.

    Four other people were charged earlier. One of them, ex-FIFA official Chuck Blazer, has pleaded guilty in the U.S to taking bribes related to South Africa’s bid.

     

  • Ex- FIFA official Blazer details bribe-taking

    Ex- FIFA official Blazer details bribe-taking

    Former top FIFA official, Chuck Blazer, has admitted that he and others on the executive committee agreed to accept bribes in connection with the choice of South Africa as 2010 World Cup hosts.

    The American said he also facilitated bribes over the 1998 event.

    The admissions come in a newly released transcript from a 2013 United States hearing in which he pleaded guilty to 10 charges, the BBC reports.

    The U.S has launched a wide-ranging criminal case that engulfed FIFA and led President Sepp Blatter to resign.

    Last week U.S prosecutors indicted 14 people on charges of bribery, racketeering and money laundering.

    Four others had already been charged, including Mr. Blazer.

    The U.S justice department alleged they accepted bribes and kickbacks estimated at more than $150million (£97million) over a 24-year period.

    Seven of the 14 were top FIFA officials who were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, as they awaited the FIFA congress. Two were vice-presidents.

    In another development, former FIFA Vice-President, Jack Warner, who is among those charged, said on Wednesday he had documents linking FIFA officials to the 2010 election in Trinidad and Tobago.

    “I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country,” he said in a paid political broadcast on Wednesday evening.

    Mr. Warner, who denied charges against him, said he feared for his life, but would reveal everything he knows about the alleged corruption.

  • South Africa again rejects World Cup bribe allegations

    South Africa again rejects World Cup bribe allegations

    South Africa has again denied that a payment of $10 million to former FIFA vice president, Jack Warner, during the country’s successful bid for the 2010 World Cup was a bribe.

    Sports minister Fikile Mbalula on Wednesday told a news conference that neither South Africa’s government nor the 2010 World Cup bid and organising committee bought votes for the right to host the tournament.

    The news conference followed last week’s claim by United States prosecutors that world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, paid the sum to the Caribbean Football Union, headed by Warner.

    FIFA’s issued a statement on Tuesday saying that, in 2007, as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the South African government approved a $10 million project to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries.

    However, the U.S indictment said the money — an alleged bribe from South Africa for the World Cup — was shared by Warner and other CONCACAF members in return for their votes.

    Warner is among 14 FIFA officials and corporate executives charged by the U.S Department of Justice last Wednesday with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150 million in bribes.

  • Adamu welcomes Blatter’s resignation

    Adamu welcomes Blatter’s resignation

    Former FIFA executive committee member, Dr. Amos Adamu, has said Sepp Blatter did the right thing to resign as president amidst a corruption scandal rocking the world soccer governing body.

    Blatter stepped down on Tuesday four days after winning a record five-year term in the elective congress at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland.

    Adamu told supersport.com that the rot in the world football body has reached an alarming height and nobody can successfully cover it.

    “It’s the right thing to do as people know what is happening there (at FIFA) is not right.

    “Sepp Blatter did the right thing to resign his position as FIFA president in the face of corruption charges among key officials.

    “FIFA has been covering a lot of things, I think it has reached the point where you cannot continue to cover it anymore,” Adamu told supersport.com.

    “The rot in FIFA is like an overheated or overloaded transformer which is bound to explode.

    “I wish him well in his future endeavours either inside or outside football.”

    He took time off to chastise the Swiss football administrator for poor handling of the case that saw him being shut out from football for three years.

    “Blatter handled my case politically. The poor handling of my case was the beginning of his downfall.

    “FIFA claimed that the Nigerian government owed the body a huge sum of money which they are making no move to redeem.

    “I was bluntly told that the witch-hunt was not directly at me per se but where I come from (Nigeria).

    “Coincidentally, Blatter is out right now and I’m in,” said Adamu in direct reference to a recent CAF appointment into the Africa Cup of Nations Organising Committee through 2015 and 2017.”

    Blatter has immediately called for an extraordinary congress to elect his successor.

  • Blatter aide linked to bribery payments

    Blatter aide linked to bribery payments

    United States’ prosecutors believe FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s top lieutenant made $10 million in bank transactions that are central to the bribery investigation of the world soccer body, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

    Jerome Valcke, FIFA’s secretary general, is described in an indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, as an unidentified “high-ranking FIFA official” who in 2008 transferred the sum to another FIFA official, Jack Warner.

    Valcke is not named as a defendant and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

    He was not immediately available for comment, Reuters says.

    A spokeswoman for FIFA said the $10 million in bank transactions were authorized by the then-FIFA Finance Committee chairman. The Finance Committee chairman was Julio Grondona, who died last year.

    Valcke and Blatter are the top two officials within FIFA.

    Valcke’s connection to the case was first reported by The New York Times.