Agence France-Presse
Washington, Dec 4: As members of FIFA’s executive committee prepared to vote on reforming soccer’s scandal-plagued governing body, Swiss government agents swept into a luxury hotel in Zurich before dawn Thursday for a second wave of arrests on corruption charges in the wake of another sweeping indictment by US prosecutors.
Five current and former members of FIFA’s ruling executive committee were among 16 additional men charged with bribes and kickbacks in a 92-count indictment unsealed Thursday that took down an entire generation of soccer leaders in South America.
“The betrayal of trust set forth here is truly outrageous,” US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. “The scale of corruption alleged herein is unconscionable.”
Led away by Swiss federal police at Zurich’s Baur au Lac hotel were Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay, president of CONMEBOL and Alfredo Hawit of Honduras, head of CONCACAF.
The arrests – at the same hotel where initial raids occurred in May – came just before FIFA’s executive committee met to approve reform and transparency measures long resisted by soccer’s top leaders but ones that gained traction in the aftermath of the scandal.
Rafael Callejas, Honduras’ president from 1990-94 and a current member of FIFA’s television and marketing committee, was indicted, as was Hector Trujillo, a judge on Guatemala’s Constitutional Court.
Also among those charged was Ricardo Teixeira, the president of Brazilian soccer from 1994-2012. Teixeira is a former son-in-law of Joao Havelange, who was FIFA’s president from 1974-98.
The 236-page superseding indictment was handed up by a grand jury in New York, November 25.
Eleven current and former members of FIFA’s executive committee have been charged in the investigation, which alleges hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal payments over the past quarter-century that involved the use of US banks and meetings on American soil.
“The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade this ongoing investigation: You will not wait us out and you will not escape our focus,” Lynch said.
Honduras said later Thursday that the United States had requested Callejas’ extradition and the Central American nation would cooperate with Washington.
At a news conference in the Honduras capital, Tegucigalpa, Callejas said his lawyers were studying the accusations and considering what steps to take.
“I will fight unwaveringly to clear up my legal situation in the United States,” the former leader said.
Napout and Hawit opposed extradition to the United States at Zurich police hearings, Switzerland’s justice ministry said in a statement. “According to the US arrest requests, they are suspected of accepting bribes of millions of dollars,” the ministry said. “Payments were also processed via US banks.”
The bribes are linked to marketing rights for the Copa America – including the 2015 edition hosted in the US – and World Cup qualifying matches.
