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US indicts FIFA officials for corruption

NEW YORK, May 27 (KUNA) -- Nine officials of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and five corporate executives indicted for racketeering conspiracy and corruption, the US Department of Justice announced early today.
The Federal Court in Brooklyn unsealed a 47-count indictment which charged defendants with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants' participation in a "24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer." The defendants charged in the indictment include high-ranking officials of the FIFA, as well as officials of other soccer governing bodies that operate under the FIFA umbrella, a press release confirmed.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that the indictment alleges corruption that is "rampant, systemic, and deep rooted both abroad and here in the US." Lynch confirmed that it spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
The indictment alleged that, between year 1991 and the present, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering. The press release noted that the soccer officials are charged with conspiring to solicit and receive well over USD 150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for their official support of the sports marketing executives who agreed to make the unlawful payments.
The defendants include two current FIFA vice Presidents (Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo) current and former Presidents of the Confederation of North, Centeral American and Caribbean Association Football (COCACAF), seven defendants arrested overseas, guilty pleas for six individual and corporate defendants.
Earlier today, Swiss authorities in Zurich arrested seven of the defendants charged in the indictment, the defendants Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel and Jose Maria Marin, at the request of the US Also this morning, a search warrant is being executed at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, Florida.(end) mao.mt