Swiss Bank Admits to Laundering over $36 Million in FIFA Bribes
Switzerland-based Bank Julius Baer has admitted to conspiring to launder more than $36 million in bribes through the US to FIFA soccer officials.
The 131-year old bank signed a three-year deferred
prosecution agreement with the US government in which it acknowledged its
involvement in the money laundering conspiracy, which the US Justice Department
says fueled an international soccer bribery scheme. The bank has agreed to pay
close to $80 million in penalties, which includes a fine of more than $43.3
million and forfeiture of nearly $36.4 million.
According to court documents filed in the Eastern District
of New York, Bank Julius Baer, through former relationship manager Jorge Luis
Arzuaga, who worked in the bank’s offices in Montevideo and Zurich, conspired
with executives at Argentine sports media and marketing company Torneos y
Competencias to launder at least $36.4 million in bribes paid to soccer
officials in exchange for broadcasting rights to soccer games. Arzuaga has
already pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to three
years’ probation in November.
Alejandro Burzaco, the controlling executive of Torneos, and
his co-conspirators had agreed to pay approximately $30 million to the senior
vice president of FIFA, who was also the president of the Asociación del Fútbol
Argentina, for his support in awarding the regional broadcasting rights to four
World Cups. Torneos also agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes to
several FIFA officials who were also officials of the Confederación
Sudamericana de Fútbol for the rights to three Copa América tournaments, and
the Copa América Centenario. Burzaco has
already pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges for his
involvement in the bribe scheme.
Court documents name the officials who were to receive
bribes as Eugenio Figueredo, a member of FIFA’s executive committee and former
president of the Uruguayan soccer federation; Marco Polo Del Nero, a member of
FIFA’s executive committee and a former president of the Brazilian soccer
federation; and José Maria Marin, a member of multiple FIFA standing
committees, and also a former president of the Brazilian soccer federation.
According to the deferred prosecution agreement, the bank’s
anti-money laundering controls “failed to detect or prevent money laundering
transactions related to the soccer bribery schemes.” It said that if Arzuaga’s
supervisors or compliance personnel had properly reviewed his due diligence on
Torneos and his responses to transaction alerts, “they would have known there
were multiple, significant red flags,” including false contracts, payments to
third parties at the direction of a FIFA official, and services purportedly
rendered by shell corporations, “all of which would have alerted the bank to
the bribery, money laundering, or other illegal activity.”
The Justice Department said the bank did not receive any
cooperation credit because it made misleading representations about relevant
facts in the case, which it said hindered the investigation, and because it
failed to provide all evidence pertaining to the involvement of senior
management.
“Bank Julius Baer pursued the profit it could make
laundering corrupt funds derived from a criminal scheme run by powerful FIFA
officials,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney, Jr. said in a
statement. “Their behavior has earned them the equivalent of a red card, and
the money the bank now owes the US government is more than double what it
admits to laundering.”
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