Corruption at FIFA and Sinkapore's connection

By now many of us have learned of some of top executives of FIFA have been charged with corruption. They are facing extradition to the United Stasi of A. to face the charges.

A little bird from the West has whispered to me that Sinkapore was a transit point for slush funds owned by some of these FIFA executives. It appears that MAS had all the while been sleeping on the job when Sinkieland was used as a hub by FIFA officers for money laundering.

As John Tan and Yang Yin, elite members of grassloot organisations such as the PA.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Singapore was used for money laundering activities.

Proving it is another matter but at least we now have some traction with the FBI and U.S Attorney General's Office getting involved.
Sepp Blatter's House of Cards will soon fall.

PinkShirtNoHeart said:

A little bird from the West has whispered to me that Sinkapore was a transit point for slush funds owned by some of these FIFA executives. It appears that MAS had all the while been sleeping on the job when Sinkieland was used as a hub by FIFA officers for money laundering.

Click to expand...

Nah... not sleeping. Fully awake, sober and complicit.

It's part of the grand plan because the PAP is running this place as a money laundering hub... with a clean, honest government. I'll let your mind wrap around that irony.

..............The OECD estimates that Singapore has 370 billion dollars in money haven deposits.

Singapore is not just a haven for money launderers and tax cheats; it is an extradition-free country for crooks from nearby countries.

Singapore avoids extradition treaties with its neighboring countries, so that regional crooks can flee to Singapore – bringing their money................

Indonesian Defense Minister Sudarsono accused Singapore this year of not signing an extradition pact with Indonesia for fear it would be obliged to return money stashed away by corrupt fugitives who had fled to Singapore.

“Singapore doesn’t want this extradition arrangement because it would have to return money from corrupt individuals who ran from Indonesia, along with the hot money it gets from other countries,” Sudarsono said. He estimated there were 80 Indonesian fugitives living in Singapore. When he met with Singapore’s senior minister Lee Kuan Yew in Jakarta last year, the city state’s founder stated that it did not make any sense to return the money.

When questioned about the extradition treaty with Indonesia, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said, “We set aside the issues for the time being.” George Yeo recently visited Washington, where he was honored by Hillary Clinton.....................

Indonesian billionaire fugitive, Liem Tek Siong, alias Sjamsul Nursalim, alias Liem Tjoen Ho, Liem now lives happily in Singapore. Liem owes US$2.8 billion due to the collapse of his Indonesian bank.

Free in Singapore, Liem is heavy into the country’s real estate business with the help of Singapore lawyer, Helen Yeo (the wife of disgraced former Singapore cabinet member, Yeo Cheow Tong).

Another person considering asylum in Singapore is Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. On a recent visit to Singapore, Mugabe’s bodyguards roughed up Fredrik Schulte, a member of Sweden’s parliament. Mugabe was afraid that he might have caught in a photographed taken by Shulte.

Singapore is not just a money haven – it is a host to some of the world’s top fugitives

http://johnharding.com/2009/05/singapore-haven-for-money-and-fugitives/

Click to expand...

Why the author of this article not being sued or charged in court-like Amos ?-esp given the remarks below

When I call a man openly, you're a liar, you're dishonest, and you do not dare to sue me, there's something basically wrong. And I will repeat it anywhere and you can't go and say, oh, I have apologised; let's move on. Can you commit a dishonourable -- maybe even one which is against the law -- an illegal act and say, let's move on because I've apologised? You may move on but you're going to move on out of politics in time. MM Lee Kuan Yew on James Gomez, Channelnewsasia, May 2006

Click to expand...

PinkShirtNoHeart said:

By now many of us have learned of some of top executives of FIFA have been charged with corruption. They are facing extradition to the United Stasi of A. to face the charges.

A little bird from the West has whispered to me that Sinkapore was a transit point for slush funds owned by some of these FIFA executives. It appears that MAS had all the while been sleeping on the job when Sinkieland was used as a hub by FIFA officers for money laundering.

Click to expand...

Browse BuzzFeed faster with the BuzzFeed app!
Menu
Here Are The FIFA Officials Indicted On Corruption Charges
Here are the 14 people, including nine FIFA officials, who face charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses. The nine FIFA officials, as well as Darryl Warner and Charles Blazer, were “provisionally banned” from football-related activities by FIFA’s Ethics Commitee on Wednesday.
Originally posted on May. 27, 2015, at 9:03 p.m.
Updated on May. 28, 2015, at 9:26 a.m.

Mary Ann Georgantopoulos
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Whatsapp

Jack Warner

Afp / Getty Images
Age: 72
Nationality: Trinidad and Tobago

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Warner resigned from FIFA and CONCACAF in 2011 amid allegations of bribery and corruption. Some of the allegations include reselling World Cup tickets and television rights and claims that he used FIFA money to build a $26 million training center on his property, according to Reuters.

Due to FIFA's rules at the time, when Warner retired, all ethics proceeds against him ended.

"I left CONCACAF and turned my back on football two years ago," he said in 2013 when a report on his mismanagement was released. "Since then, I have had no interest in any football-related matter."


Facebook: video.php
Jeffrey Webb

Alexandre Schneider / Getty Images
Age: 50
Nationality: Cayman Islands

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Webb, who was arrested in Zurich Wednesday, is the current FIFA vice president and executive committee member. He is also president of CONCACAF, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, and executive committee member of the Caribbean Football Union. He is also the head of FIFA's anti-discrimination task force.

In the past, Webb has been vocal about fighting corruption in the organization. He was among few to press FIFA to release the entire report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, according to the New York Times. Webb is expected to be extradited to the US.

Eduardo Li

Rodrigo Arangua / Getty Images
Age: 56
Nationality: Costa Rica

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Li is the president of the Costa Rican soccer federation and an executive committee member of CONCACAF. He was arrested in Zurich Wednesday and is expected to be extradited to the US. Li was scheduled to join FIFA's executive committee this week.

Nicolás Leoz

Juan Barreto / Getty Images
Age: 86
Nationality: Paraguay

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Leoz was president of CONMEBOL, the governing body for soccer in South America, from 1986 to 2013, and a member of FIFA's executive committee. He resigned from both positions two years ago, citing heath and personal reasons. At the time, he was also accused of accepting bribes from a former FIFA marketing partner, according to the BBC. An official for England's 2018 World Cup bid also accused Leoz of asking for knighthood in exchange for his vote, according to The Guardian.

Julio Rocha

Luis Romero / AP
Age: 64
Nationality: Nicaragua

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Rocha was arrested in Zurich Wednesday and is expected to be extradited to the US. He is the current FIFA development officer and the former president of the Central American Football Union and the Nicaraguan soccer federation.

Eugenio Figueredo

Miguel Rojo / Getty Images
Age: 83
Nationality: USA, Uruguay

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine. In addition to the conspiracy charges, Figueredo also faces a charge of naturalization fraud, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He could also have US citizenship revoked.

Figueredo is a current FIFA vice president and executive committee member. He is the former president of CONMEBOL, the governing body for soccer in South America, and the Uruguayan soccer federation. He was arrested in Zurich Wednesday and is expected to be extradited to the US.

He faces 10 years in prison for a charge of naturalization fraud and could have his U.S. citizenship revoked. He also faces a maximum prison sentence of five years for each tax charge.

Rafael Esquivel

Leo Ramirez / Getty Images
Rafael Esquivel (left)

Age: 68
Nationality: Venezuela

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Esquivel has been president of the Venezuelan soccer federation since 1988. He's the longest-serving national federation president in South America, according to the Times. He was arrested in Zurich on Wednesday and is expected to be extradited to the US.

José Maria Marin

Buda Mendes / Getty Images
Age: 83
Nationality: Brazil

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Marin was the president of the Brazilian soccer federation up until April 2015 — he served as head of Brazilian soccer during the 2014 World Cup. He is also on the organizing committee for the 2016 Olympics soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro. He was arrested in Zurich Wednesday and is expected to be extradited to the US.

Costas Takkas

Jorge Adorno / Reuters
Age: 58
Nationality: United Kingdom

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture, and a fine.

Takkas is the current attaché to the CONCACAF president and a former CIFA general secretary. He was arrested in Zurich Wednesday and is expected to be extradited to the U.S.

Takkas also serves as the CFO of Abakan, a company that specializes in "advanced coatings and metal formulations."

Abakan spokesman Robert Miller told BuzzFeed News Wednesday that Takkas is "not an active person with our company" and does not have the authority to sign checks — something Miller acknowledged is unusual for a CFO.

Miller added that he has been friends with Takkas since the 1990s and that the revelations in the indictment were "shocking."

"It's like having a son who has become a heroin addict or something," Miller said. "I've read the indictment and it's nauseating."

Alejandro Burzaco
Age: 50
Nationality: Argentina

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Burzaco is an executive of Torneos y Competencias S.A., a sports marketing business in Argentina.

Aaron Davidson
Age: 44
Nationality: USA

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Davidson is the president of Traffic Sports USA, an organization that promotes soccer events.

Hugo and Mariano Jinkis
Ages: 70 and 40, respectively
Nationality: Argentina

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Both Hugo and Mariano Jinkis are soccer media executives in Argentina.

José Margulies (aka José Lazaro)
Age: 75
Nationality: Brazil

Charges: RICO conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in addition to mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Margulies was charged with serving as an intermediary to facilitate illegal payments between sports marketing executives and soccer officials.

Here are the four individuals who previously pleaded guilty:
Daryll Warner
Age: 40
Nationality: USA, Trinidad and Tobago

Charges: wire fraud and structuring of financial transactions to evade currency reporting requirements. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the financial charge.

Daryll Warner, is the son of Jack Warner, who is also charged. Daryll was a former FIFA development officer.

Daryan Warner
Age: 46
Nationality: Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada

Charges: wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering and the structuring of financial transactions to evade currency reporting requirements. He faces 10 years in prison for the financial charge.

Daryan Warner, another son of Jack Warner, has already forfeited more than $1.1 million and agreed to pay a second sum when he is sentenced.

Charles Blazer
Age: 70
Nationality: USA

Charges: racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, income tax evasion and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts or FBAR. He faces 10 years in prison for the FBAR charges and five year for each tax evasion charge.

Charles Blazer was the former CONCACAF general secretary and a former FIFA executive committee member. He forfeited more than $1.9 million and has agreed to pay a second sum when he is sentenced.

José Hawilla
Age: 71
Nationality: Brazil

Charges: racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

José Hawilla is the owner and founder of the Traffic Group, a Brazilian sports marketing conglomerate. He agreed to forfeit more than $151 million, $25 million of which he's already paid.

Top FIFA Officials Arrested On Suspicion Of Corruption

buzzfeed.com

Here Are All Of The FIFA Charging Documents

buzzfeed.com

FIFA And Qatar's 2022 World Cup Committee Donated To The Clinton Foundation

buzzfeed.com

Mary Ann Georgantopoulos is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Mary Ann Georgantopoulos at [email protected]
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Whatsapp

View Responses

Browse BuzzFeed faster with the free BuzzFeed app!


The BuzzFeed App: Made With Material For Android Lollipop

The Ghosts Of Laprak

If "Archer" Characters Had Tinder

Watch These Adorable Kids Give Love Advice To Adults

What's Your "Mad Max" Name?



17 Awesome New Books You Need To Read This Summer

El Niño Came For Texas, And It May Be Coming For California, Too

21 Struggles Of Having A Name That’s Impossible To Pronounce

21 Things That Happen To Everyone Who Wears Makeup

22 Things All Twentysomethings Do That Their Teen Self Would Judge Them For

16 Hilariously Awful Disney Knockoffs

What Would Your Style Have Been 100 Years Ago?

Here’s What James Holmes Wrote In His Notebook Before The Aurora Theater Shooting

Here’s How The Feds Say The Alleged FIFA Bribery Schemes Worked

Watch 100 Years Of Indian Beauty In Less Than Two Minutes

There Are Finally Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Action Figures

17 Beauty Commandments All 2000s Girls Followed

This Guy Says He’s Been Sitting In A Café All Day After Finding A Note Promising Him $300

Sepp Blatter, “The Godfather” Of Soccer, Faces His Toughest Opponent: Loretta Lynch

32 New Mashups You Need In Your Life This Summer
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Pinterest
 Email

Email


PinkShirtNoHeart said:

By now many of us have learned of some of top executives of FIFA have been charged with corruption. They are facing extradition to the United Stasi of A. to face the charges.

A little bird from the West has whispered to me that Sinkapore was a transit point for slush funds owned by some of these FIFA executives. It appears that MAS had all the while been sleeping on the job when Sinkieland was used as a hub by FIFA officers for money laundering.

Click to expand...

Not sleeping lah.
Just the usual "market opportunity" ala COMFORT taxis when the trains break down.

‘WORLD CUP OF FRAUD’05.28.155:15 AM ET
The Soccer Dad Who Brought Down FIFA
Chuck Blazer went from suburban New York kiddie coach to flying on private jets with soccer's global elite. Now he’s the Mr. Big of informants.
One apartment in Trump Tower for himself.

A second next door for his cats.

More luxury apartments in Florida and the Bahamas.

Credit card charges topping $26 million.

Another $20 million in his pocket.

A blog titled “Travels with Chuck Blazer and His Friends…” featuring a picture of him on a private plane with a smiling Nelson Mandela.

A private meeting with Vladimir Putin in which the Russian president tells him he looks just like Karl Marx.

Nights at one for the best tables in the fabled Manhattan nightspot Elaine’s.

Feasts at such fine restaurants as Campagnola and Dutch.

Chuck Blazer billed all of it—including a Hummer for himself and health care for his girlfriend—to an international soccer association, years of graft justified by a sense of entitlement.

He was, after all, the general secretary of FIFA’s Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), having hustled his way up from kiddie coach to head of the Westchester County soccer association to the New York state soccer association to a national position and his eventual prominence.

The one-time suburban soccer dad who had stood so lean with his 6-year-old son’s team back in 1979 had since been transformed by excess into a 450-pound personification of ever-growing greed.

When he became too corpulent to move around without effort, he simply got a motorized scooter.

And the hobnobbing and gorging and squandering might have just kept on and on, for the soccer association was the infamously corrupt FIFA.

The greed turned feverish as Qatar campaigned to become the site for the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar had broiling heat and scant facilities, and little to recommend itself besides a lot of cash, but that was enough to cinch it.

With that victory, Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar apparently decided that the magic of money might also make him the new president of FIFA.

And here, CONCACAF’s then-president, Jack Warner, went from greedy to plain stupid.

150527-daly-fifa-embed
Andrea De Silva/Reuters
Warner was also president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), which in the past has voted as a bloc in FIFA presidential elections.

Warner called a meeting of the CFU at a Trinidad hotel. Bin Hammam addressed the group. Warner afterward directed the members to a conference room to pick up a “gift” for having attended.

Frederick Lunn, vice president of the Bahamas Football Association, later recounted in an affidavit that he went to the conference room as instructed.

“When I arrived, the door was locked, so I knocked,” Lunn recounted. “A male answered the door and asked that I wait a few minutes. Soon thereafter, the same individual opened the door and invited me in.”

Lunn entered and a woman asked him to sign a form.

“She then handed me a manila envelope with ‘Bahamas’ written on it,” Lunn remembered. “I opened the envelope, which was stapled, and stacks of US $100 fell out of the envelope and onto the table. I was stunned to see the cash. I asked them what it was and they told me it was US $40,000. They said it was a gift from the CFU and I could count if I wanted.”

Lunn took a picture of the money before returning it.

“Witnessing this was particularly troubling because at this same time CNN was running stories concerning allegations of bribes being paid in connection with awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar,” Lunn recounted.

Lunn reported the attempted “gift” to Anton Sealey, the head of the Bahamas chapter. Sealey reported it to Blazer.

“I told Mr. Warner I was upset he had caused these payments to be made. I noted that in 21 years of working together in CONCACAF we had never paid anyone for a vote.”
In the past, Warner had suffered few repercussions after being accused of hustles such as selling 20,000 more tickets to a match than there were seats.

But Warner had now engaged in something unforgivable: being party to an apparent attempt to bribe an honest person who then reported it.

Word of it was sure to reach FIFA. And the longtime sitting president, Sepp Blatter, no doubt would take particular exception, as this gift-giving was an apparent attempt to unseat him.

All of which left Blazer in jeopardy because he and Warner had long been considered to be so close that people would meld their names together and speak of them as one person, ChuckJack.

Chuck moved to separate himself from Jack. Blazer reported Warner to FIFA, filing an affidavit that is almost certainly an exercise in perjury.

“I told Mr. Warner I was upset he had caused these payments to be made. I noted that in 21 years of working together in CONCACAF we had never paid anyone for a vote,” Blazer said in the sworn statement.

Warner must have sputtered. He had supposedly given Blazer a cut of the $10 million he allegedly received for voting in favor of South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup.

But Warner could not say that without putting himself in a far deeper hole. Warner resigned, telling reporters only, “The general secretary that I had employed, who worked with me for 21 years, with the assistance of elements of FIFA has sought to undermine me in ways that are unimaginable.”


By several accounts, Warner subsequently became less than circumspect about Blazer’s considerable excesses. Word of them reached the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn. The day came in November 2011 when agents from the FBI and the IRS approached Blazer as he cruised a Manhattan street in a motorized scooter. The IRS takes a very dim view of those who pilfer millions and do not even file their taxes for a decade.

As was first reported by the New York Daily News, the agents offered Blazer a simple proposition: “We can take you away in handcuffs now—or you can cooperate.”

By the News’s account, the agents subsequently presented Blazer with a keychain containing a miniature microphone and directed him to record a series of meetings with FIFA officials.

The New York Times subsequently discounted the import of the News’s revelations, sniffing, “It was fascinating, colorful and compelling. But Blazer isn’t the Mr. Big of corruption in FIFA. And never was.”

What Blazer had become was the Mr. Big of informants in FIFA. The result was the 47-count, 161-page Indictment 15 CR 0252 (RJD) (RML), announced on Wednesday by Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey.

The 14 defendants face up to 20 years in jail on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. A number had been arrested at a five-star hotel in Switzerland, where they were attending a FIFA meeting. Extradition is expected to give them a full measure of the difference between Zurich’s Baur au Lac and Brooklyn’s federal court.

“These individuals and organizations engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide,” Lynch said.

Richard Weber, IRS chief of criminal investigation, said, “This is the World Cup of fraud, and today we are issuing FIFA a red card.”

The big red card stars Blazer as “Co-Conspirator #1.” Warner is among those charged. Two sons of Warner, Daryll and Daryan, have already pleaded guilty. One, identified in the indictment only as “Co-Conspirator #14,” was allegedly directed by his father in the early 2000s to fly to Paris and collect a briefcase stuffed with cash in $10,000 bundles from a “high ranking South African bid committee official.”

As the voting on who would host the 2010 World Cup drew nearer, Warner allegedly told Co-Conspirator #1—Blazer—that South Africa had offered to pay $10 million to “support the African diaspora.” Warner allegedly promised Blazer that he would receive $1 million in exchange for a pro-South Africa vote.

“Warner made three payments to Co-Conspirator #1, totaling over $750,000, in partial payment of the $1 million that Warner had earlier promised Co-Conspirator #1 as part of the bribe scheme,” the indictment says.

Blazer has already pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing, which has apparently been delayed as he continues to cooperate in anticipation of leniency. He is now 70 and suffering from colon cancer.

As a soccer dad nearly four decades ago, Blazer had not been much good when it came to strategy and the fine points of what is rightly called “the beautiful game.”

But he had been great at scheduling matches and arranging end-of-season dinners for his 6-year-old son’s team in New Rochelle, outside New York City.

And he had more time than most young dads, having started a button-making business in Queens when he was 19 and smiley faces were just becoming big. He sold it before the craze passed and became a modest success story at 27.

But he wanted more and more and more as his organizing smarts and New York hustle subsequently took him to the highest levels of organized soccer, which proved to be at the lower levels of human existence.

And to make it all sadder, the Facebook page for Blazer’s now-grown son has this to say:

“Worked at CONCACAF.”