Swiss prosecutors confirm about 25 FIFA investigations

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia: About 25 separate investigations of suspected corruption linked to FIFA and World Cup bidding are being led by federal prosecutors in Switzerland, the country’s office for the attorney general said Friday.

The office of Michael Lauber confirmed the scale of “footballrelated cases” after securing a first conviction since its FIFA probes began in 2014.

Cases were not specified, but criminal proceedings are open against former FIFA officials Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke, and some 2006 World Cup organizers, including Franz Beckenbauer.

Swiss and American prosecutors worked together on a guilty plea made in a Brooklyn federal courthouse on Thursday by Jorge Arzuaga, a former employee of Swiss private banks from Argentina.

Arzuaga admitted to working with former FIFA finance chairman Julio Grondona and others in a money-laundering conspiracy linked to bribes. Grondona was senior vice president at FIFA when he died in 2014.

Arzuaga forfeited $650,000 in “unlawfully obtained” bonuses to the Swiss treasury, the federal prosecution office said.

The banker, who worked in Zurich for Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, is due to be sentenced on Jan. 4.

Lauber was invited by FIFA in November 2014 to begin investigating suspected wrongdoing in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests, which were won by Russia and Qatar, respectively.

“To date, 178 reports of suspected money-laundering transactions have been received in connection with the football investigations,” Lauber’s office said.