More FIFA arrests expected in probe
ZURICH — FIFA and embattled President Sepp Blatter faced more pressure Monday as U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch warned of new indictments in a widening investigation of corruption in international soccer.
“We do anticipate pursuing additional charges against individuals and entities,” Lynch said in FIFA’s home city, citing unspecified new evidence gathered since the stunning May 27 arrests of seven people at a luxury hotel in Zurich.
Lynch spoke at a news conference alongside her Swiss counterpart, Michael Lauber, whose separate investigation of money laundering appears equally threatening to FIFA and its soondeparting president.
Swiss federal agencies have now seized properties in the Swiss Alps and more evidence during house searches in western Switzerland, said Lauber, who last updated media on his case in June.
“Investment in real estate can be used for the purpose of money laundering,” said Lauber, whose case seems to lead beyond its original focus of FIFA’s criminal complaint about the 20182022 World Cup bidding contests.
A total of 121 different bank accounts have been reported as suspicious by a Swiss financial intelligence unit to Lauber’s team of prosecutors, he said.
The two lawyers shared a stage on the sidelines of an annual conference of federal prosecutors, almost four months after the scale of their investigations was made public.
Two days before the FIFA presidential election on May 29, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 14 soccer and marketing officials in a $150 million bribery and racketeering conspiracy and unsealed six guilty pleas, including Chuck Blazer. The longtime member of FIFA’s executive committee was a key cooperating witness for federal investigators in Brooklyn where Lynch was formerly U.S. Attorney.
Lynch did not comment Monday on whether Blatter is targeted in her case, or if he faced arrest by traveling to a country which has an extradition treaty with the United States.
“I can’t give you any information about Mr. Blatter’s travel plans,” said Lynch, smiling and drawing laughs from a room packed with around 150 journalists in a Zurich hotel.
The Swiss case could spread beyond the World Cup bids won by Russia and Qatar as prosecutors sift through massive amounts of data and documents seized from FIFA headquarters in May and June.