NEW YORK — Swiss federal prosecutors on Wednesday said they have opened criminal proceedings related to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups won by Russia and Qatar.
(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini, AFP/Getty Images)
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said the proceedings are against “persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering” in connection with the votes won by the successful bidders.
The OAG said computers and documents were seized Wednesday at FIFA’s offices in Zurich. During a press conference FIFA said it is cooperating with the investigation but otherwise did not elaborate.
Earlier Wednesday FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, was rocked by a dramatic scandal after six officials were arrested in Switzerland and may face extradition to the United States on suspicion of federal corruption charges.
The arrests were made at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, the Swiss city where FIFA’s annual meeting will take place later this week, by plain-clothed officers representing Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice.
According to the FOJ, the action was taken at the specific request of American legal authorities following an investigation led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“The FOJ’s arrest warrants were issued further to a request by the U.S. authorities,” read the FOJ’s statement, which claimed investigators suspect the illegal dispersal of more than $100 million in “bribes and kickbacks” involving media, marketing and sponsorship rights dating as far back as the early 1990s.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI director James Comey and IRS criminal chief Richard Weber were expected to announce the extent of the criminal case in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It was not immediately clear if that announcement will also address the investigation into the World Cup.
Among those arrested, according to the BBC, was Jeffrey Webb — president of FIFA’s CONCACAF confederation — which has headquarters in New York and Miami and includes the United States among its members.
FIFA has long struggled to shake off accusations of corruption, but the American case appears to be the largest and most wide-ranging investigation into the financial dealings of the governing body.
While a FIFA spokesman swiftly insisted that there were no allegations against the organization’s controversial president, Sepp Blatter, this could hardly have come at a worse time for the 79-year-old, who is expected to be elected for a fifth time on Friday.
“(Blatter) is not involved at all,” FIFA spokesman Walter De Gregorio said.