Loreta Lynch will hold a press conference today on the FIFA scandal and arrests

[malaise]

This has been coming for a while
--------------------------------------
http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/national/12973271.Fifa_officials_held_in_bribes_probe/
<snip>
Swiss officials said the allegations date back to the 1990s and involve "the acceptance of bribes and kick-backs".

The New York Times has reported that the charges include wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and that the United States attorney general Loretta Lynch is due to hold a news conference later today.

A statement from the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) read: "The six soccer functionaries were arrested today in Zurich by the Zurich Cantonal Police.

It added: "The FOJ's arrest warrants were issued further to a request by the US authorities.

"The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating these individuals on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kick-backs between the early 1990s and the present day.

"The bribery suspects - representatives of sports media and sports promotion firms - are alleged to have been involved in schemes to make payments to the soccer functionaries - delegates of Fifa (Federation Internationale de Football Association) and other functionaries of Fifa sub-organisations - totalling more than 100 million US dollars.

"In return, it is believed that they received media, marketing, and sponsorship rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America. According to the US request, these crimes were agreed and prepared in the US, and payments were carried out via US banks."

[Sanity Claws]

1. Go after the fucking bankers

Everything else is just small potatoes and a distraction from the real crimes underlying the entire economy.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. I hope they squeeze some of them and

arrest Sepp Blatter. He is a corrupt toad.

[malaise]

3. Chuck Blazer's part in this

[url=http://www.businessinsider.com/chuck-blazer-reportedly-informed-fbi-in-fifa-investigation-2015-5]I posted about this some time ago[/url]

<snip>
Authorities reportedly arrested more than a dozen people as part of its investigation of FIFA corruption on Wednesday, The New York Times reported.

And the man who reportedly helped the FBI build its case is a former top-ranking FIFA executive from New York City. The New York Daily News published an investigation about former FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer's involvement in the corruption case in November, and BuzzFeed wrote about the "swindling suburban soccer dad" in June.

Blazer was "one of the most powerful men in world soccer" before he left FIFA in 2013 amid an ethics investigation, according to SB Nation, which noted that Blazer likely cooperated with the FBI's FIFA investigation in order to avoid jail time.

Blazer has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, income tax evasion and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), according to a US Department of Justice statement released on Wednesday. He forfeited nearly $2 million and agreed to pay another undetermined amount when he is sentenced.

It's currently unclear whether Blazer made a deal with investigators and what his sentence will be.

------------------------------
My understanding is that Blazer is terminally ill.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. They just raided CONCACAF headquarters in Miami Beach. nt

[malaise]

9. They had raided Warner's high end apartment in Florida

sometime ago - the high flying sons now face a reality check

[hobbit709]

5. Pocket change level thievery. What about the banksters that swindled trillions?

[Autumn]

6. So this is about soccer?

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. Is it not possible to be focused on more than one issue?

Soccer matters to a huge number of people around the world. It isn't an issue that people and leaders take lightly even though the U.S. has a long way to go.

Why do those who are interested have to be snarled at?

[Autumn]

8. Sure it's possible.

I think the level of corruption of the banks that crashed our economy and got bailed out by our tax dollars is a bit more interesting though.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. So your concept is that unless they jail the bankers, other courruption should be granted immunity?

I do not agree. The world of soccer is replete with the abuse of workers and in fact the trafficking of youth with potential to play. Masses of people are affected, often among the world's most vulnerable. It is not typical for an American to understand the scope and nature of this sport in the world, the power it carries and the messages sent by allowing them impunity.
And since it is not in fact a binary choice why would anyone claim that it is a binary choice? I find it to be very shallow thinking, this need to present all issues as being in competition, it's a choice, one or the other, economic or social, bankers or sports frauds. Can't seek justice as a whole, nope, have to parse out the meaning of the word justice and apply it in carefully meted out portions, defined, compartmentalized and edited.

[malaise]

14. Good post

This beautiful game needs some custodians who are interested in more than money and power.
Since they refused to clean up this mess themselves, down they go.
Andrew Jennings must be howling with laughter this morning.

[Bluenorthwest]

15. The human cost is a 'social issue' which many on DU don't care about, but you'd think they could

muster a bit of concern for a hundred million dollar international racketeering and bribery prosecution involving people who employ slave labor and the purchase of young players who are not themselves compensated, which is again just slavery.
Americans tend to think of soccer as something involving the suburbs and kids who are driven in vans by 'Soccer Moms'. They don't get that it is bigger than all of our sports combined and globally rooted. It is a sport that could do great good in the world if it was not corrupted as it is.

[malaise]

16. The only international sporting body with more money than FIFA is

the International Olympic Committee.

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. They need to merge.

Then the bribery can be consolidated.

I have never been able to get past Sepp Blatter's name. It sounds like a nasty urinary tract infection which is apt.

[malaise]

18. International Sports Federations are already

part of the IOC - IFs would never merge with the IOC - indeed they keep their own competitions separate hence football at the Olympics is mostly U23.

[Autumn]

23. No, that's not my concept at all. I simply expressed my disappointment when I read what

the presser was about. Yes, that was absolutely terrible of me.

[questionseverything]

30. reminds me of when gonzoles lied to congress

but it was the sports guy that got prosecuted over steroids testimony

[Autumn]

31. Yeah and then there this

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/27/robert_reich_the_new_gilded_age_is_even_more_terrifying_than_the_original_partner/

Last week’s settlement between the Justice Department and five giant banks reveals the appalling weakness of modern antitrust.

The banks had engaged in the biggest price-fixing conspiracy in modern history. Their self-described “cartel” used an exclusive electronic chat room and coded language to manipulate the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency exchange market. It was a “brazen display of collusion” that went on for years, said Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

But there will be no trial, no executive will go to jail, the banks can continue to gamble in the same currency markets, and the fines – although large – are a fraction of the banks’ potential gains and will be treated by the banks as costs of doing business.

The cost of doing business.

But at least Lynch and the DOJ got some corrupt soccer thieves.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Here is the problem

it is the exact skill set needed in the racketeering unit to go after Chase that is needed to go after FIFA. The fact that the DOJ choses one over the other (and FIFA IS NOT pocket change) is rather telling.

So don't complaint about them going after corruption, Rather try to connect the dots as to why they are not going after Goldman Sachs, Chase Bank, and Bank of America. It is not nice, but it is easy to do actually.

[questionseverything]

28. i think i have connected the dots

i think the doj is as corrupt as the banks that did the rigging

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026734134

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. I would not go precisely that far

It is not the DOJ but the political class that approves their budget.

This year's Presidential race alone will run 5 Billion. Who do you think is donating large amounts of that cash to BOTH SIDES? And then you have the Congressional (competitive district in 2014 ran 17 million, we expect at least 20 this year), and the Senate races...

So if you are a pol you will tell the people in charge of the budget at DOJ, not in ways DOJ will feel threatened to actually do something about it, that if they do go after their friends, there goes the budget for the white crimes divisions.

Our system, political system, is an oligarchy and corrupt by nature. In the end though, that leads to quite precise and well known lines you shan't cross.

Oh and I don't care who gets elected to the WH at this point. It's not going to change by electing one person with the correct letter behind their name. This is quite systemic.

[libdem4life]

42. Hey, why didn't YOU get the devastating rebuttals and apologists that descended upon me? LOL

Maybe it's because I used the "color" comparison.

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. I got no idea

[libdem4life]

49. Me neither.

[nadinbrzezinski]

51. Well I read the exchange and some folks

are quite not familiar with how deep this goes.

While they should be going after the banks, this is not about MLS... some of the folks are very well connected WHITE folk. This case has been building since the end of the last World Cup in Brazil. It actually started to grow stumps in South Africa.

In Brazil, they actually caught a ref taking bribes. There were rumors of such in South Africa.

I love soccer, I watch soccer... I enjoy the games, but the pay outs are not new.

Interpol brought the FBI and the DOJ by invitation into this. It could have exploded three weeks ago before Holder left. But this moves at the speed of the investigators, not the figure head at the department.

Getting my twitter go nuts last night, and the email from DOJ in the morning was all but a surprise to me.

On a far larger picture, SPORTS are just as corrupt as banks. And I doubt any will go after the NFL, for example at this time. But FIFA... it affects the lives (we can have a debate whether it should) of billions around the world.

[Autumn]

32. We know exactly why they are not going after Goldman Sachs,

Chase Bank, and Bank of America.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Yes we do

[malaise]

13. It's a sad day for the most popular sport in the world

for its custodians believed they were immune to any laws on the planet and continued their non-stop banquet of greed, corruption and illegal voting re world cup venues.

How ironic that the country with the least interest in this beautiful game is about to lock up many of the greedy.

Moral of the story - when you think you're above the law - don't fugging use US banks or tax laws because they don't buy your immunity to law bullshit.

[libdem4life]

55. Specifically, which banks? Good lord, they are complicit with money launderers of all classes

nationalities and creeds. The regulators are going to rise to propriety on suing Soccer Players?

I'm sorry, yes, there is greed everywhere. The US chooses Soccer Players to start with. Let's start with all the accounts Offshore for these poor, abused victim banks and the IRS. Sorry, I don't share the outrage. Who does one prosecute...the weakest link. Now we're getting somewhere.

Soccer? Brown folk? Yep. Not condoning it, just noticing the ferocity of "investigation" and the reliable Crusaders for Banking Apologetics.

[nadinbrzezinski]

62. Sorry they are NOT GOING after soccer players

nice try though.

[libdem4life]

66. I see, just their employers? I'm not an expert here,but when I see a list of Mexican/Latino surnames

on the list of our Ever-Conveniently-Judicial-Warriors, it gives me cause to pause. I didn't say they are innocent. Few are. But the sanctions to open the flood gates against, yes, the soccer players, I resist. And if you think this doesn't affect the soccer players, shame on you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

67. Actually it will protect the soccer players

from silly shit like bad (bought and paid for) refs at the World Cup.

You do not follow this stuff. I do. Mexico had two goals annulled in the first game of the cup and the ref was the one taking bribes.

So yes, the player that scored those goals did not get the bonus he was supposed to get for scoring those goals. That is one very concrete way this corruption has hurt players. There were rumors, and I wish Mexico did it, as well as a few other teams, that teams considered pulling out of the world cup, but they did not due to the salaries they would NOT pay their players and technical staff if they did.

Not that they are poor slobs either.

This is like saying that if we got the NFL to actually fine bad referees would affect the players.

There are many rumors that nations will REFUSE to further participate in the world cup system because it is that corrupt.

Crazy. That you chose that line of attack.

I suggest you check implicit bias at the door.

[3catwoman3]

77. We recently watched a very...

...interesting program called Behind The Whistle, which looked at the ref training for the English Premiere League. Quite informative.

In a sport where scoring opportunities can be very minimal, incompetent or biased refs can and do decide games.

During the youth years of travel soccer with our sons, when a ref would arrive on the field and we would hear one of the opposing players call out, "Hi, Uncle Jim, or some other very familiar greeting, you could pretty well guess which way most of the calls were going to go.

[nadinbrzezinski]

80. Exactly

and in that case Mexico was so pissed they almost walked out of the stadium and straight to the airport. so rumor has it.

They were talked down from doing it. I wish they did. Oh the press...

[davepc]

12. International bribery and kickbacks and extortion etc

FIFA has literal blood on its hands, and anything that can be done to take down the corrupt leadership is a good thing.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/23/qatar-nepal-workers-world-cup-2022-death-toll-doha

Nepalese migrants building the infrastructure to host the 2022 World Cup have died at a rate of one every two days in 2014 – despite Qatar’s promises to improve their working conditions, the Guardian has learned.

The figure excludes deaths of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi workers, raising fears that if fatalities among all migrants were taken into account the toll would almost certainly be more than one a day.

Qatar had vowed to reform the industry after the Guardian exposed the desperate plight of many of its migrant workers last year. The government commissioned an investigation by the international law firm DLA Piper and promised to implement recommendations listed in a report published in May.

But human rights organisations have accused Qatar of dragging its feet on the modest reforms, saying not enough is being done to investigate the effect of working long hours in temperatures that regularly top 50C.

[Autumn]

24. Does this do anything to improve their working conditions?

I didn't find that in either article.

[NCTraveler]

37. Yes. Properley investigating FIFA will lead to improved working conditions.

Reading down through the posts it seems clear you have an issue with this, even though it will absolutely lead toward more equitable working conditions. Many of us familiar with FIFA know of how corrupt it has become. It is a bigger issue than you seem to think.

[Autumn]

44. Wrong, I really don't have an issue with this. I would like to see a press conference about

some bankers being arrested but that doesn't seem to be a priority. I think the corrupt banks are a pretty big issue.

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/27/robert_reich_the_new_gilded_age_is_even_more_terrifying_than_the_original_partner/

[NCTraveler]

48. This is an op about FIFA.

I was replying to this comment. "Does this do anything to improve their working conditions?" I get that very large scale corruption isn't your thing. Corruption that hurts a lot of people, including good honest businesspersons around the globe. I was replying to your question directly. "Does this do anything to improve their working conditions?" The answer is an astounding yes.

I'm not aware of anyone who doesn't believe the banks to be a big issue.

[Autumn]

52. My question was about Nepalese migrants who have died at an alarming rate of

one every two days in 2014 who are building the infrastructure to host the 2022 World Cup. The article in that post that prompted my question was not about good honest businesspersons unless Qatar is the good honest businessperson you are talking about.

[MerryBlooms]

10. rec & kick

[malaise]

19. She's on now

Warner got the rights for $1 way back when. Ha - CONCACAF - we are so fugging corrupt.

[Are_grits_groceries]

20. Best tweet:

@LorumIpsum:
BREAKING: Swiss Police confirm that, when arrested, all seven FIFA officials threw themselves on the ground and pretended to be injured.

[malaise]

21. Freaking brilliant

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Were they red carded?

[libdem4life]

43. LOL

[mcar]

35. Perfect!

[libdem4life]

45. WTF...no penalties for Flops????

[Romulox]

22. But the banksters will remain unpunished? Pathetic. nt

[questionseverything]

29. fined...just a cost of doing business

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026734134

[libdem4life]

25. I'm sorry. a Black woman jumping in the fray against Brown men? This may be her claim to fame. Ugh

[mcar]

36. What?

That's what you think this is about?

[libdem4life]

39. Well, tell me I'm wrong. It's her first high-profile case, that I know of. Not the bankers? I

don't hear Anyone clamoring about Greed and Corruption of the white bankers and crooks that we already know about aplenty. So we gotta start with Soccer? WTF

It doesn't sit well with me...hell, she barely got confirmed before Obama's term was up. Why? We all know why. Now, she's after MLS, the traditional sport of Central and South America and Mexico. Europe and US are come-latelys.

[Are_grits_groceries]

53. She was leading this case well before her nomination

for attorney general. That's why she led the press conference and knew so much about what was going on. This was her investigation and her efforts coordinated it. She didn't just jump in.

[libdem4life]

56. Well, that makes me feel better. She just chose it for her first Big Haul in the cesspool of money

laundering. South American/Latin American sports.

[nadinbrzezinski]

64. Since the United States is part of CONCAFAF, which is

headquartered in Miami


I know Miami is in a state that was part of New Spain, but that was a while ago.

[libdem4life]

68. Give me a break, wiith all due respect, this is still "reaching way out there" for a US publicity

Attorney General action. We're talking NSA huh? action here. Who should/could be paying attention to more, shall we say, appropriate targets. Still I say...Soccer...WTF? Get real.

I'm done.

[nadinbrzezinski]

69. Since this affects real people too

you are done.

The MLS is part of CONCACAF, so is the Canadian Soccer league and Mexico, three nations in North America.

And this has none to do with the NSA.

[libdem4life]

71. No, I'm not. Who gets prosecuted is the question...and how easily it is prosecuted. That's the

difference...give or take the nationality thingy. I'll stick with my profiling opinion, thanks anyway.

[nadinbrzezinski]

73. I am all glad you are for corruption in some cases

but not in others

I am all for prosecuting the crooks regardless.

See, there is a difference. And you are engaging in something quite ugly. And yes, I cover race issues, regularly.

[libdem4life]

75. Don't know why this is personal, or why my opinions are ugly.

This is a terrible precedent for a minority AG who waited longer than anyone to be approved. And we all know why the delay. And if FIFA and all the Spanish Heritage names is the first prosecution, it sucks...plain and simple.

I lived in LA County and Sonoma County for decades and still have family in San Diego...back when there were only 2 lanes due to construction from LA to SD.

It's nothing personal, really, it's just my opinion.

[nadinbrzezinski]

78. Go here

http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-for-racketeering-conspiracy-and-corruption?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=email&utm_source=new-york-press-releases&utm_content=433209

And sign to get the FBI updates.

This is hardly the first, or last prosecution. Fair warning, there are so many emails you should make sure you empty your email box every day.

[libdem4life]

81. Good lord, I'm not going there. There is corruption overflowing. My only, and apparently

doomed comment is that it is unsavory/unfortunate/cherry picking for the brand newly appointed, longest ever conformation for AG (because of the unusual combination of the dual happenstances of her gender and race, likely...no proof...no conspiracy theory) to go after the lowest hanging fruit...which happens to be Soccer's Hispanic Princes of Doom.

Avarice abounds. Prosecution is choice. Just hope she takes on some white bankers and investment capitalists and corporations before she is timed out with a new administration.

[nadinbrzezinski]

82. I gave you a link to where you can get drowned

in both major and minor prosecutions.

By the way, you continue to show your implied bias. It is not nice.

We all have it, I work hard to overcome mine.

[snooper2]

38. yeah, because the DOJ can only do one thing at a time

[libdem4life]

40. What other "high profile" case is the DOJ on...oh yeah, Greenwald et al is back.

I don't claim to be an expert. Just respond to what I read.

[snooper2]

41. huh? respond to what you read?

[libdem4life]

46. Yes, and your problem with that is exactly...........?

[snooper2]

50. what did you read

[libdem4life]

54. That which I wrote about...again, what is your problem with this rather way-out-there story?

Who prosecutes ballers when she has such rich (literally) targets already a'flounderin' ? White bankers or brown soccer players? LOL.

[snooper2]

57. what about the grey soccer players?

[libdem4life]

59. Huh? One of us is clueless. Gray...Grey...again...WTF?

[snooper2]

61. you forgot about the green players, and forgot she busted Medco

[libdem4life]

65. No idea what you're talking about...still on Grey (not Gray) players.

[snooper2]

70. GREY!

Grey or gray (see spelling differences) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is a color "without color".[2] It is the color of a cloud-covered sky, of ash and of lead.[3]

The first recorded use of grey as a color name in the English language was in AD 700.[4] Grey is the dominant spelling in European and Commonwealth English, although gray remained in common usage in the UK until the second half of the 20th century.[5] Gray has been the preferred American spelling since approximately 1825,[6] although grey is an accepted variant.[7][8]

In Europe and the United States, surveys show that grey is the color most commonly associated with conformity, boredom, uncertainty, old age, indifference, and modesty. Only one percent of respondents chose it as their favorite color.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey

[libdem4life]

72. It's not the spelling, per se, what does it have to do with the subject at hand

Although grey is typically European, like theatre.

[snooper2]

74. nobody cares about the grey players!

[libdem4life]

76. Well, that clears it up.

[snooper2]

79. No Problem!

[McCamy Taylor]

58. And why should I care? I don't gamble. Where are the bankster prosecutions?

I do use banks.

[libdem4life]

60. They just aren't quite so convenient...sorry...have to wait in line behind the soccer players.

[nadinbrzezinski]

63. I know this might be hard to comprehend

but these folks, from the NEWS RELEASE, are NOT soccer players

The Indicted Defendants:

ALEJANDRO BURZACO
Age: 50
Nationality: Argentina
AARON DAVIDSON
Age: 44
Nationality: USA
RAFAEL ESQUIVEL
Age: 68
Nationality: Venezuela
EUGENIO FIGUEREDO
Age: 83
Nationality: USA, Uruguay
HUGO JINKIS
Age: 70
Nationality: Argentina
MARIANO JINKIS
Age: 40
Nationality: Argentina
NICOLÁS LEOZ
Age: 86
Nationality: Paraguay
EDUARDO LI
Age: 56
Nationality: Costa Rica
JOSÉ MARGULIES, also known as José Lazaro
Age: 75
Nationality: Brazil
JOSÉ MARIA MARIN
Age: 83
Nationality: Brazil
JULIO ROCHA
Age: 64
Nationality: Nicaragua
COSTAS TAKKAS
Age: 58
Nationality: United Kingdom
JACK WARNER
Age: 72
Nationality: Trinidad and Tobago
JEFFREY WEBB
Age: 50
Nationality: Cayman Islands
The Convicted Defendants:

CHARLES BLAZER
Age: 70
Nationality: USA
JOSÉ HAWILLA
Age: 71
Nationality: Brazil
DARYAN WARNER
Age: 46
Nationality: Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada
DARYLL WARNER
Age: 40
Nationality: USA, Trinidad and Tobago
TRAFFIC SPORTS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Registered: British Virgin Islands
TRAFFIC SPORTS USA, INC.
Registered: USA
E.D.N.Y. Docket Numbers:

United States v. Daryll Warner, 13 Cr. 402 (WFK)
United States v. Daryan Warner, 13 Cr. 584 (WFK)
United States v. Charles Blazer, 13 Cr. 602 (RJD)
United States v. José Hawilla, 14 Cr. 609 (RJD)
United States v. Traffic Sports International, Inc., 14 Cr. 609 (RJD)
United States v. Traffic Sports USA, Inc., 14 Cr. 609 (RJD)
United States v. Jeffrey Webb et al., 15 Cr. 252 (RJD)
1 Also this morning, a search warrant is being executed at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, Florida.

[Dont call me Shirley]

83. And why do the bankers not get arrested?! Why does the US waste it's time on a few sports reps?