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NYT: New Wave of Arrests in FIFA Corruption Scandal

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C

chadskin

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Swiss authorities began a new series of pre-dawn arrests Thursday in the broad investigation, led by United States officials, into corruption in international soccer. More than a dozen people were expected to be charged, law enforcement officials said, nearly doubling the size of an already huge case that has upended FIFA, soccer’s multibillion-dollar governing body.

The police were targeting current and former senior soccer officials on charges that include racketeering, money laundering and fraud, authorities said. The new charges were expected to hit South and Central American soccer leaders particularly hard, the officials said.

The arrests, coming as FIFA’s leaders gathered in Zurich, served as a high-profile reminder that despite the organization’s promises of reform, soccer’s top officials remain under intense legal scrutiny by the investigation.

It was not immediately clear who was charged, but law enforcement officials said the list did not include Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/sports/fifa-scandal-arrests-in-switzerland.html
 
F

Fathead

Member
More people gonna be ready to testify against Blatter.

We might actually have a semi-clean Fifa in a few years.
 
C

chadskin

Member
Swiss Federal Office of Justice:
On the instructions of the Federal Office of Justice FOJ, a further two FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich today, Thursday. They are being held in custody pending their extradition. According to the US arrest requests, they are suspected of accepting bribes of millions of dollars.

The two FIFA officials were arrested by the Zurich cantonal police today in Zurich. The detention orders issued by the FOJ are based on arrest requests submitted by the United States Department of Justice on 29 November 2015. In the light of further investigations conducted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, these individuals are now also suspected of having received bribes. The high-ranking FIFA officials are alleged to have taken the money in return for selling marketing rights in connection with football tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying matches. According to the arrest requests, some of the offences were agreed and prepared in the USA. Payments were also processed via US banks.
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https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/en/home/aktuell/news/2015/2015-12-03.html
 
S

SwolBro

Banned
ISOM said:
The US may be soft on political backroom deals and Wall Street bailouts but we take our sports seriously damn it,
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ginger ninja said:
As Chris Rock once said, fucking with sports is just unamerican.
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timetokill said:
lol

sports is serious business in america, haven't you heard?

if you want us to enjoy soccer then we're gonna have to clean house first because that shit is fucked up
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Yes, it is a serious business. As long as it doesn't LOOK like corruption the U.S is ok. But to say there isn't corruption in American Sports....

just look at college football and how football athletes (mainly black students) are practically slaves. It's corruption, just a moral one and the U.S tends to care less about those ;)

Thing is the U.S didn't have a big presence in FIFA, and giving the cup to Qatar was a huge smack in the face. I knew the U.S wasn't going to let that fly.
 
T

timetokill

Banned
SwolBro said:
Yes, it is a serious business. As long as it doesn't LOOK like corruption the U.S is ok. But to say there isn't corruption in American Sports....

just look at college football and how football athletes (mainly black students) are practically slaves. It's corruption, just a moral one and the U.S tends to care less about those ;)

Thing is the U.S didn't have a big presence in FIFA, and giving the cup to Qatar was a huge smack in the face. I knew the U.S wasn't going to let that fly.
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I don't know man, FIFA's corruption has more than its fair share of morality corruption.

Also, college sports athletes all operate under similar scholarship and pay restrictions. In football and basketball there may be a very slight and significant majority of black athletes respectively, but overall college sports is still majority-white. I'm all about reforming the situation but saying they're "practically slaves" outside of a South Park context is really hyperbole. Then you have sports like baseball where one of the all-time greats (Pete Rose) will never be let into the Hall of Fame because he was betting on games, regardless of whether it actually affected the games or not.

Ultimately corruption in American sports is a whisper compared to the storm that you see in soccer.

Cynically, you could say that corruption is an issue for american sports simply because corruption is "bad for business," I suppose.
 
N

Nodnol

Member
We need to have FIFA labeled a criminal organization before anything substantial can happen IMO. Tear it all down, and we go again. Needs to be completely restructured, much like the IAAF does too, if it's ever meant to serve its purpose.

The only way we will get the World Cup away from Qatar too, because they can't hold a FIFA World Cup if there's no FIFA.

Burn it to the ground.
 
R

robochimp

Member
SwolBro said:
just look at college football and how football athletes (mainly black students) are practically slaves. It's corruption, just a moral one and the U.S tends to care less about those ;)
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Practically slaves? There isn't a single similarity between collegiate sports and the horrors of slavery.
 
B

BertramCooper

Banned
A Fish Aficionado said:
Odd to see the US taking a stand against corruption.
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Why? DOJ can be pretty damn aggressive. Holder was far too lenient on Wall Street, to be sure, but DOJ isn't exactly a meek, passive department.

European regulators are the ones being weak. Between DOJ going after FIFA and EPA going after Volkswagen, U.S. regulators are the ones cleaning up messes that Europe failed to clean up themselves.
 
B

Beefy

Member
The full extent of FIFA's corruption scandal was laid bare by fresh indictments on Thursday after US justice authorities alleged huge sums destined for disaster relief and development projects were embezzled by senior officials.

It is the first official confirmation of allegations that Warner diverted 750,000 US dollars in emergency funds donated by FIFA and the Korean Football Association intended for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He is currently fighting extradition from Trinidad to the USA.

Webb, a banker from the Cayman Islands, has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud conspiracy and three counts of money laundering conspiracy. As part of his plea, Webb agreed to forfeit more than 6.7million US dollars.

http://myinforms.com/en-gb/a/20092890-former-fifa-official-warner-39embezzled-haiti-aid39/
 
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