World Cup of fraud

After a day of arrests that tore into the heart of international soccer’s highest governing body, the question now is who is the high-ranking South African bid committee official the FBI names only as co-conspirator #15.

Its indictment states that the man or woman handed over a briefcase filled with US currency in $10000 stacks to a high-ranking Fifa official in a Paris hotel room.

That official was Jack Warner, the disgraced former Fifa vice-president and executive committee member and the president of Concacaf (the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) who resigned from all football positions in June 2011 after Fifa’s ethics committee opened proceedings concerning at least three corruption and bribery charges.

Last night, US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch said the investigation that had resulted in yesterday’s arrest of seven Fifa officials, Warner and several marketing executives was just at the beginning.

She did not say who #15 was or if his or her arrest was pending.

The 164-page indictment, which does not name any South Africans, alleges that South Africa sought to pay Warner, who held a powerful block of Caribbean votes, in exchange for his support of the country’s 2010 World Cup bid.

The Presidency declined to comment last night and the Sports Ministry said it would respond today. SA Football Association spokesman Dominic Chimhavi said the claims were ”baseless and untested”.

Warner and his co-accused have been charged with racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracies. The indictment says that in the early-2000s Warner instructed co-conspirator #14, a member of his family, to fly to Paris to meet co-conspirator #15 and collect the briefcase. In 2004, co-conspirator #1 learnt from Warner that high-ranking officials of Fifa, the South African government and the local World Cup bid committee were allegedly preparing to arrange for the government to pay $10-million to secure votes for the 2010 bid.

When no money could be raised from the government, Fifa paid over the $10-million itself from money that should have gone to South Africa for the organising of the World Cup, the indictment says. It provides dates and amounts of wire transfers to US banks.

Morocco, which South Africa beat to host the 2010 event, offered $1-million. Lynch said even for the 2010 event – the first in Africa – Fifa executives and others “corrupted the process by using bribes to influence the hosting decision”.

Warner said yesterday he was innocent of any charges.

The head of the 2010 bid committee, Danny Jordaan – who is to be inaugurated as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay next week – was unavailable for comment. It is not the first time that corruption in the 2010 World Cup has been alleged.

Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said in 2012-2013 allegations had been made concerning a Singaporean national.

“Investigations were conducted but unfortunately nothing materialised from these investigations.”

He said the Hawks had been made aware of the current FBI investigation and would, if called on, assist the US agency.

Neal Collins, a freelance journalist who has written several books on Fifa, said the arrests should have happened years ago. “South Africa was the most profitable World Cup for Fifa. Fifa literally raped South Africa of money.”

“Without question” there were South African links to the Fifa corruption and these links could go all the way to the top of the country’s political realm, Collins said.

The dawn raids on a luxury hotel in Zurich were followed by the announcement of a second investigation, by Swiss authorities, into corruption over voting for the hosts of the next two World Cups.

They said they were to question 10 Fifa executive committee members, including Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football, Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast) and Hany Abo Rida from Egypt. African officials have been fingered by the Qataris in vote-buying.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter said the organisation welcomed the investigations by the US and Swiss authorities, and that those engaged in misconduct would be ”put out of the game”.

– AFP

via TimesLive