Investigation targets ex-FIFA president Blatter
GENEVA » Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter is the target of a criminal investigation in Switzerland for suspected mismanagement of a $1 million payment from soccer funds.
Blatter has been notified by Swiss federal prosecutors he is an “accused person” over a loan FIFA gave in 2010 to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.
The 84-year-old Blatter has denied any wrongdoing during decades of financial scandals linked to soccer’s world governing body, though he was banned from the presidency and risks being brought to trial in his home country.
The payment now publicly revealed came from a FIFA account on April 13, 2010, and was interest-free, unsecured and later waived as a kind of gift, the document detailed.
It is the latest allegation in Swiss and American federal investigations tying FIFA to irregular payments benefiting Jack Warner, its former vice president from Trinidad who is fighting extradition to the United
Former FIFA President Joseph Blatter in Moscow, Russia on June 19, 2018.
States.
Warner long controlled a key bloc in FIFA elections until he left soccer after being implicated in bribing voters to oppose Blatter in 2011. He was also an elected lawmaker in the Caribbean nation and became a government minister after a general election held in May 2010.
Two former senior FIFA officials — Jérôme Valcke as secretary general, and Markus Kattner as finance director — are also named as accused persons.
The Swiss federal prosecution office said in a statement Saturday that criminal proceedings against Blatter were extended last month to include Valcke and Kattner. The office said both men, who were fired by FIFA in 2016, have the presumption of innocence.