Zurich – Authorities in Zurich, Switzerland on Wednesday launched an operation to arrest several high-ranking FIFA officials on corruption charges and extradite them to the United States, the New York Times reported.
The Times, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, said the U.S. federal charges include racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud and span two decades of misconduct in soccer’s world governing body. More than 10 officials were expected to be indicted, the newspaper reported.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice says six soccer officials have been arrested and detained pending extradition at the request of U.S. authorities ahead of the FIFA congress in Zurich.
In a statement Wednesday, the FOJ says U.S. authorities suspect the officials of having received of paid bribes totaling millions of dollars.
It says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kick-backs between the early 1990s and now.
The officials are in Zurich for the FIFA Congress where incumbent Sepp Blatter faces a challenge from Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in a presidential election on Friday when Sepp Blatter has been widely tipped to stay in the job.
Swiss federal prosecutors opened criminal proceedings related to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, throwing FIFA deeper into crisis only hours after seven soccer officials were arrested and 14 indicted Wednesday in a separate U.S. corruption probe.
FIFA, meanwhile, said Friday’s presidential election would go ahead as planned with Sepp Blatter going for a fifth term. Blatter was not named in either investigation.
FIFA also ruled out a revote of the World Cups won by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
The Swiss prosecutors’ office said in a statement they seized “electronic data and documents” at FIFA’s headquarters on Wednesday as part of their probe. And Swiss police said they will question 10 FIFA executive committee members who took part in the World Cup votes in December 2010.
The Swiss investigation against “persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering” again throws into the doubt the integrity of the voting.
“FIFA is fully cooperating with the investigation and is supporting the collection of evidence in this regard,” FIFA said in a statement.
The Swiss announcement came only hours after seven soccer officials were arrested and detained by Swiss police pending extradition at the request of U.S. authorities after a raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that two current FIFA vice presidents were among those arrested, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay.
The others are Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, Julio Rocha of Nicaragua, Costas Takkas of Britain, Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Jose Maria Marin of Brazil.
All seven are connected with the regional confederations of North and South America and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of racketeering.
“The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in the statement.
“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.”
Nine of the 14 that were indicted by the Justice Department are soccer officials, while four are sports marketing executives and another works in broadcasting.
Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice president from Trinidad and Tobago, was among those indicted.
The Swiss prosecutors’ office said the U.S. probe was separate from its investigation but that authorities were working together.
The U.S. case involves bribes “totaling more than $100 million” linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for soccer tournaments in the United States and Latin America, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said. The Justice Department said the corruption is linked to World Cup qualifying matches and the Copa America — South America’s continental championship.
Dozens of soccer officials are in Switzerland for the FIFA congress and presidential election, where Blatter is widely expected to win re-election at the helm of the governing body of world soccer.
Blatter had been scheduled to attend a meeting of the Confederation of African Football in a different downtown Zurich hotel, but he canceled his appearance.
Blatter’s only opponent in Friday’s presidential election, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, said it was “a sad day for football,” but declined to comment further.
The arrests were made at the lakeside Baur au Lac Hotel in downtown Zurich, long favored as a place for senior FIFA officials to stay.
It was the stage for intense lobbying for votes ahead of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting decisions in December 2010.
The North American regional body, known as CONCACAF, reported itself to U.S. tax authorities in 2012. Then based in New York, the organization had not paid taxes over several years when its president was Warner and secretary general was Chuck Blazer of the United States.
Warner left soccer in 2011 to avoid FIFA sanctions in a bribery scandal during that year’s presidential election. Blazer left in 2013 and has pleaded guilty to charges, the Justice Department said in Wednesday’s statement.
Warner’s successor as CONCACAF leader and FIFA vice president is Webb, who was staying at the Baur au Lac this week.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said in its statement that U.S. authorities suspect the arrested officials of having received or paid bribes totaling millions of dollars and that the crimes were agreed to and prepared in the U.S., and payments carried out via U.S. banks.
“The bribery suspects — representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms — are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries (FIFA delegates) and other functionaries of FIFA sub-organizations – totaling more than USD 100 million,” the FOJ statement said.
A statement in German added that the probe involved tournaments in the United States.
International media gathered at the street entrance of the Baur au Lac in scenes reminiscent of the World Cup votes won by Russia and Qatar more than four years ago.
Then, former President Bill Clinton was inside meeting FIFA voters who later rejected the American bid in favor of Qatar, and Britain’s Prince William was part of the losing English bid team.
Suspicions of vote-buying and wrongdoing in those bidding contests have dogged FIFA ever since.
