Swiss Bank Admits to Laundering $36 Million in Bribes to Soccer Officials

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Newsweek

A Swiss bank agreed to pay $79.7 million in penalties after admitting to laundering over $36 million in bribes paid to international soccer officials on Thursday.

Bank Julius Baer, the third largest Swiss bank, will pay a $43.3 million fine and forfeit another $36.4 million for conducting the transactions between February 2013 and May 2015, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The settlement is part of a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.

DOJ says the bank knowingly laundered the money through the U.S. "to conceal the true nature of the payments and promote the fraud." The bribery scheme involved sports marketers giving illicit payments to officials from global soccer governing body FIFA and South American governing body CONMEBOL in exchange for the rights to broadcast soccer matches.

"Bank Julius Baer pursued the profit it could make laundering corrupt funds derived from a criminal scheme run by powerful FIFA officials," William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York Field Office, said in a statement. "Their behavior has earned them the equivalent of a red card, and the money the bank now owes the U.S. government is more than double what it admits to laundering."

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/swiss-bank-admits-to-laundering-dollar36-million-in-bribes-to-soccer-officials/ar-AAKslWM?li=BBnb7Kz

[3catwoman3]

1. Our older son, who is passionate about soccer, has long said...

...that FIFA is the most corrupt of the corrupt.

[Escurumbele]

3. Your son is correct, they have been working for too long without any accountability.

I too love Soccer, played it all my life, and still enjoy it very much, but yes FIFA is and has been a mafia for too many years.

[peppertree]

2. The man at whose behest the bribes were paid is brother of fmr. Argentine Pres. Macri's SECURITY SEC

The bribes in question were paid for the benefit of TyC, Argentina's premier sports cable channel - whose CEO at the time, Alejandro Burzaco, is the brother of Eugenio Burzaco (Macri's Security Secretary during his hard-right, 2015-19 tenure).

Eugenio Burzaco's then-boss, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, is Argentina's Marjorie Taylor-Greene - and is expected to run for president on the increasingly radicalized 'Together for Change' (JxC) ticket in 2023.

JxC, since at least 2011 (2003, probably), has had close links to the GOP - particularly Narco Rubio.

Bullrich, however, is herself in hot legal water after evidence surfaced she (as many suspected) basically managed Macri's misuse of State Intelligence and parts of the judiciary against opponents and rival businessmen.

Macri, many on DU will recall, has been a friend of Cheeto's since around 1984 - and is said to share much of his worldview.