More arrests coming in FIFA fraud

|By K Raveendran| Qatar has maintained complete silence over any possible connections with the indictment of FIFA officials on various charges, including acceptance of gratification in awarding World Cup editions. The situation continues to hold suspense amidst reports coming from the US that criminal charges are to be brought against more people.

Bloomberg reports quoting Internal Revenue Service’s chief investigator that the U.S. investigation of corruption in soccer’s governing body is moving to a new phase that will bring criminal charges against more people.

How the case develops hinges in part on the fate of nine FIFA officials and five sports marketing executives charged in a racketeering and bribery indictment unsealed May 27, said Richard Weber, chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. The prosecution, which has garnered worldwide attention, came two days before FIFA re-elected its embattled president, Sepp Blatter, 79, for another four-year term.

“It’s probably hard to say who is on the list for the next phase and the timing of that,” Weber said in a phone interview Friday. “I’m confident in saying that an active case is ongoing, and we anticipate additional arrests, indictments and/or pleas.”

Prosecutors charged Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner, the current and former presidents of soccer’s governing body for North America, Central America and the Caribbean. They secured guilty pleas from Charles Blazer, 70, the group’s former general secretary; Jose Hawilla, a Brazilian sports marketing executive, who agreed to forfeit $151 million; and Warner’s two sons, Daryll and Daryan.

New Witnesses?

“A lot depends on how the case unfolds from this point forward, depending on if other defendants decide to cooperate, whether or not other witnesses come forward based upon the allegations in the indictment,” Weber said.

“There are a lot of factors beyond our control, so it’s hard to put a specific timeframe on it,” he said. “But we do have evidence that we’re already developing and working on. It depends on how other pieces of the puzzle come together.”

The IRS entered the case in 2011 when a Los Angeles-based agent, Steven Berryman, began a tax investigation of Blazer, Weber said. Blazer lived in a Trump Tower apartment, flew on private jets, dined at the world’s finest restaurants and hobnobbed with celebrities and world leaders.

His blog, “Travels with Chuck Blazer and his Friends,” featured pictures of Blazer with Hillary Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Prince William, among others. Blazer, now fighting cancer, drew the IRS into FIFA, Weber said. In late 2011, the IRS joined the FBI, which was separately probing FIFA.

The FBI probe arose from an inquiry into aspects of Russian organized crime by the Eurasian Joint Organized Crime Task Force in the agency’s New York office, the New York Times reported this week, citing people it didn’t identify.

IRS agents built an $11 million tax case against Blazer, Weber said.

“This started with a U.S. citizen beating a significant amount of taxes and using offshore tax havens in his criminal schemes,” Weber said. “Through the investigation of Blazer, relatively early on our agents were confident that there was widespread corruption within FIFA.”

Blazer secretly pleaded guilty in 2013 to racketeering conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, income-tax evasion and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, charges that were made public Wednesday. He forfeited more than $1.9 million at the time of his plea and has agreed to pay more money when he’s sentenced.

Blazer admitted he participated in several bribery schemes involving soccer tournaments, including the World Cups in 1998 and 2010, according to court records. He took a $750,000 cut of a $10 million bribe to support South Africa’s host bid for the 2010 World Cup, according to the criminal charges he admitted.

Confronted years ago by the IRS for failing to pay taxes, Blazer agreed to wear a hidden microphone in meetings with FIFA officials, the New York Daily News reported in November.

Weber wouldn’t name any individuals who are cooperating. “I’m comfortable saying in a case like this one, we do rely on individuals that have information about the inner workings of an organization,” he added.

Weber said that investigators traced financial records from 33 nations and obtained most of them through treaty requests.

“When you’re talking about a $150 million-plus racketeering and money-laundering case, where you have to trace the bribe and kickback case through multiple accounts and intermediaries and offshore corporations and official ownership, it’s a maze of documents and a significant jigsaw puzzle that has to be put together,” he said.

“When you’re dealing with so many countries and so many different players, it is reasonable to spend a few years on a case like this,” Weber said, according to Bloomberg.