04x12 - FIFA: Sports' Biggest Scandal

[bunniefuu]

- The importance of soccer
internationally is kind of
incomprehensible.

- The World Cup Tournament
is the single largest sporting
event in the world.

- Soccer is life.

- These individuals that are
part of the FIFA organizations,

they are treated like royalty.

- In the beginning, the biggest
piece was bribery

for World Cup votes.

- We looked at this case as
an organized-crime case.

- You could look at the
structure of FIFA,

almost like a traditional
organized-crime family

with a boss, an underboss,
capos, soldiers...

A pattern of
fraud, bribery and kickbacks

that netted international soccr
officials and

marketing executives $150
million over the last 24 years.

- If anyone overseas caught wind
that the FBI was investigating

FIFA, the case would have
finished before it started.

- Who leaked it?
What if, a Swiss law enforcement

officer gets k*lled?

- This really is
the world cup of fraud.

And today we're issuing
FIFA a red card.

In the FBI,
we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts, mob stings.

t*rror1st takedowns.

We understand why people want
to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.
- Freeze!

- FBI!

- FBI!
- Action!

But they don't
know the half of it.

What really goes down?

We save that for each other,

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is FBI. True.

- So, what is FIFA?

- FIFA is the organization that
oversees world soccer.

Mike Gaeta
supervised the Eurasian
organized-crime team

and headed the New York
office's money laundering

investigations squad.

- Soccer is the largest
sport in the world.

FIFA is the largest sport
governing body in the world.

- Are they like the size
of the United Nations?

- It's bigger than
the United Nations.

John Penza is
a 21-year veteran of the FBI.

John served as both an
investigator and a supervisor

for the Eurasian and Italian
organized-crime squads,

focusing on high-level
financial crimes.

- FIFA's made up of six
confederations that are

groups of regions of countries
all over the world.

It is the body that is
controlling the World Cup

and all the various tournaments
that are held internationally.

- You're an FBI squad
in New York.

How does FIFA come
across your desk?

Kristy Kottis
is a 24-year veteran of the FB.

she worked gangs, crimes
against children

as well as
human and drug trafficking.

- So in 2009, I was assigned to
be the supervisor of

the Russian organized-crime
squad, and I was given

the mandate to look
internationally

for transnational
organized-crime, to look
for sophisticated

criminal activity that affected
the United States.

So I was asked to fly to London
to meet some people who wanted

to talk to us and provide us
information about international
criminal activity.

One of the things this
person talks about

is FIFA and
corruption at FIFA.

The information that we were
told was that for years,

people were being bribed to vote
for World Cup locations.

- Think about the Olympics.

It's bigger.

It's a huge, huge, huge event
and a gigantic money-maker

for that country that gets
that bid.

- There were also allegations
of match fixing.

There were also allegations
of bribery

for tickets for tournaments.

- Are certain countries
mentioned?

People?
What are they telling you?

- So this was 2009.

A shot at
the goal.

And guess who's got it?

FIFA Club World Cup champions,
Barcelona.

- One of the pieces of
information we heard was

that Russia had been working
to bribe

to obtain votes for
the World Cup for 2018.

What we learned is that there
was a group within FIFA

that was physically based
in New York City.

And so if there was corruption
and they were engaged,

then that corruption was
happening here in New York City.

So it was really
in our backyard.

- So you're overseas, you're
getting this information.

You take that back
to the United States.

Where do you begin?
- I had significant experience

conducting organized-crime
cases, RICO cases,

criminal enterprise matters.

We looked at it as a criminal
enterprise case

and formulated it that way.

We had a target here in New
York City named Chuck Blazer

who is one of the executives
of CONCACAF, which was

one of the bodies that make up
FIFA, the body that covers

North America and the Caribbean.

He was very influential
in the business side
of world soccer.

- If I look back 10 years,


we've made, I'm very proud
of our accomplishments.

- Chuck lived a very high life
here in New York City.

He was out on the town.

Somewhat of a socialite.

- He had two apartments
in Trump Tower.

He lived on one
of the top floors.

- Two?

Two. One for him,
and one for his cats.

- When you were over in London,
what other names

were they throwing at you and
have you seen them now

in your investigation?

- One of the other names was
Chuck's partner at CONCACAF,

Jack Warner, who actually was
the president of CONCACAF.

Jack was from Trinidad
and Tobago.

Part of the importance of their
positions and them

in particular, was that they
were actually voting members

on the executive committee
of FIFA.

- What does the executive
committee do that makes that
so important?

- One of the more important
things they do is vote

for where the World Cup is going
to be held, incredibly big.

- That's huge.
- Yeah.

And you've got heads of state
meeting with

the executive committees
of FIFA lobbying

to have the vote for them.

They want the World Cup
in their country.

- These individuals that are
part of the FIFA organization,

specifically the ExCo members,
they are treated like royalty.

The way they traveled, first
class everywhere,

the best restaurants.

Just unbelievable, the money
and power these folks have.

Looking for
Fàbregas. No, it's Iniesta.

This is it!
That's the goal!

Spain are the kings
of world football.

- So at this point
in the investigation,

has the ExCo had a vote on who's
going to get the next World Cup?

- When we initiated
the investigation, we knew that

in a couple of months there was
going to be a vote

for the World Cup for 2018
and 2022.

Part of the information we had
obtained was that Russia

was going to corruptly influence
the vote.

- It is indeed a great day
today, here in Zurich.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup,
ladies and gentlemen,

will be organized in Russia.

At that point,
we realize, this is the big
break.

We couldn't believe it.

- Let us make history together.

- This is not a small thing.

Heads of state are involved.

One of the things we learned
was that corruption in FIFA

had been in the media for years,
overseas.

But in the States
we didn't see it.

Good
morning, welcome to Zurich.

How much profit did you make
selling World Cup tickets
this year?

Do you know which football
officials took bribes?

- I don't answer
these questions.

- Reporting on corruption
and saying

something is corrupt
is one thing.

Right.

- Proving it in a court of law,
particularly

in the United States, is
a completely different story.

A prayer,
I suspect from Kumagii.

And the World Cup for Japan!

They have rewritten
the history books.

Shortly after
the announcement that
the vote for 2018

went to Russia, we bring IRS
on to join in on the case.

And so the idea was let's look
from a tax perspective

at Chuck in particular.

The information that came back
was Chuck hadn't paid taxes

for almost 20 years.

- And when you say hasn't paid
taxes in 20 years,

we're not talking about like
he made $10,000 a year

and he just didn't file--

- Well, we didn't know how much
money because

he didn't report it.
- Right.

- However, working at the
highest levels of FIFA,

living the lifestyle that he did
in Trump Tower in New York City,

traveling the world, we knew
he's got money

and he's living it up,
not reporting any of it.

That is leverage that you can
now utilize

to obtain his cooperation.

- Based on the tax information,
and potentially

he could be ripe for the flip.

- Right.

Approaching an individual
to try and get them

to cooperate, you have to be
very strategic about it

if you're doing a criminal
enterprise case.

- Absolutely
- Because it's not about Chuck.

- No.

- The case is about
a much bigger picture.

If the approach with Chuck
fails, then everybody will know

what we're trying to do because
he'll tell everybody.

- Yeah.
- You have to plan out

how to do so in a way that is
the least public way possible.

And you do that just old school
surveillance,

trying to figure out
his routine.

And the idea was to wait
near Trump Tower.

Odds are he's coming out
and going to dinner.

He was always out eating dinner.

They approach him and said:
"We need to speak with you.

You have some issues that you
need to explain."

He was taken aback
at first.

But he's also a very
cool character.

He composed himself quickly and
said:

"Look, I know, I want to help.

I'll call you and we'll set
something up."

- Now you've got the target
saying: "Yeah, I'll
work with you".

- Well, he says:
"I'll meet with you."

- I got excited.
- Getting to the point where

he'll work with us...
- Yeah.

-...takes a little bit.

And so ultimately there's
a meeting in 26 Fed.

At that meeting, he's presented
with what we know,

which is the fact that he hadn't
paid taxes for years.

He's also presented
with options.

He can A, try to address his
tax situation by proactively
helping the government.

Or he can sit back and wait for
the government to charge him

criminally and then go
to prison.

- That's B.
- Right.

- And he chooses?
- He chose A.

- So, when he leaves that door
and he walks out,

there's got to be a
little trepidation like:

"I hope he shuts his mouth".
- Yeah. Everytime.

You know, because if he tells
his girlfriend, his ex-wife,

Jack Warner.
Game over for the investigation.

They are going
to have one evening to celebrae

here which will last long
into the night.

- So now that we've got Chuck
to flip,

what are the goals
in this case?

- This is an organized-crime
case,

and organized crime-cases
are made with cooperators.

So you have to develop
cooperators like Chuck.

But to get to the hierarchy,
the top targets of the group,

you have to get step by step
cooperation.

Because you're not going
to find it on paper.

- So what does that look like?

- First, we're meeting with
Chuck, with the, with the U.S.

attorney's offices, and
he is proffering.

He is telling us some of his
bad deeds and folks

that he's engaged in criminal
activity with.

Then the next logical step for
us as investigators

is to get him talking to those
bad guys,

to get those
conversations on tape.

And that's exactly what we did.

- So where does that lead us?

- We have a number of months
where he's actively wiring up

against various people.

- Here in the United States,
or...

- Here in the US and
overseas.

- Oh, he goes overseas, too.
- He went overseas and

we had him at the Olympics
in London in 2012.

Developing information against
the targets of the case.

- Now Chuck is telling us
about other people.

Are some of the people that
he mentions,

do we know who they are and
have we seen them

in our investigation?

They were other members
of the ExCo.

Sepp Blatter, who was
the top of the hierarchy.

The head of FIFA.

- I have been elected by 133
national associations,

but I am
the president of everybody.

- And so they were high-profile
people, but there were also

people we never knew about in
various aspects

of this corruption,
over the years.

We're talking 20 years
of activity that we learned
from Chuck.

- What are some of the people
that you get from him

that are
pretty big cheeses?

- An individual named
José Hawilla.

He lived in Brazil.
Very big player in the sports

marketing scene in South
America.

He had significant contact with
other ExCo

members from South America.

- What's his job
in South America?

- He had a couple of companies
that negotiated for

television rights and for
the various tournaments

that FIFA would hold in
South America.

He would obtain those rights
and then he would

resell those rights.

Neymar!
Wow!

There's no stopping that.

- What information do we get
about that individual?

- In regard to what Chuck knew
and talked about,

it was a bribe that
had been covered up.

Knowing that Hawilla was
currently involved in the mix

with ExCo members down
in Florida, big players,

longtime players within FIFA,
we thought we could turn that
into something.

But at the same time, we're
also recognizing that,

you know, look, if we don't get
Hawilla,

this case may not go further.

It's kind of a make
or break situation.

So the U.S. Attorney's office
prepares the complaint,

and we get
a warrant for his arrest.

We learned a couple days
in advance

he was coming into Miami.

We had a team down in Miami
and they arrested him

when he came off the plane.

- Was he shocked?

- Extremely.

- He's obviously a Portuguese
speaker and Spanish

and English
is like his third language.

So we're trying to convey to
him how serious of a position

he's in and that he needs
to fully cooperate or else

he will never go back
to Brazil again.

- So when you guys target José,
you guys are having

like a come
to Jesus moment.

And what happens after that?

- He starts making
the recordings he needs to make.

Mario Goötze
for Germany!



They find the way!

- From him, how many other
subjects now are we developing?

- 17, 18, 19.

- Wow.
- And keep in mind, his base

of operations is Brazil.

That's CONMEBOL territory,
another federation

similar to CONCACAF.

All those countries in South
America, Hawilla has access to.

So literally the floodgates
opened when he came in.

- Now all of a sudden you're
probably getting a firehose

of information and evidence.

- Yeah, and you're triaging
those folks.
- Yeah.

- Who makes the most sense?
Are they US-based?

Can we put our hands on them?

Are they from non-extraditing
countries?

- So was a lot of it based on
information that Chuck had
gotten you?

- Chuck, Hawilla and
other cooperators.

And we were able to,
in collaboration with the IRS

and the U.S. Attorney's Office,
build a RICO indictment

against initially


- Wow.

John Smith
forward. Bryan is there as wel.

What is down for
the United States?

The United States of America
are the 2015 World Cup winners.

- We found out there was going
to be a FIFA ExCo meeting
in Zurich.

It was going to be about
a week at an exclusive hotel.

- All the players that we want
to arrest are in one location.

- These were folks that we hoped
would travel to Zurich for
the meeting.

Again, we hoped.

The arrests were going
to be at 0600, 6 a.m.

Swiss time, which was going
to be midnight our time.

A quarter after 11, 11:30, IRS,
the FIFA FBI team and

the Department of Justice from
Eastern District,

we all assembled in the command
post in 26 Federal Plaza.

We had a live feed to Hoover.

We had direct comms with Zurich.

And we had different news
channels on

and waited for
the arrests to start.

- The excitement must be
palpable.

- The adrenaline is pumping.

What's going to happen?

Is everybody there?

Who's not there?

Shortly before midnight, again,
we had all these

news channels on, there's like
some kind of CNN banner

about an arrest in Zurich.

- Wait... OK. Time out.
You're sitting in the op center

and then a banner comes up
that says

there's going to be arrests
in Zurich.

Were you like, it's over?

- I looked at the lead AUSA,
Evan Norris,

and I'm like: "what
the f*ck?"

Who leaked it?

- Right.
- What if, God forbid,

a Swiss law enforcement officer
gets hurt or God forbid, k*lled?

- Right.
- Who would do this?

But from the timing of it,
we did not collectively

have enough time to start
pointing fingers.

And we just had to
say, you know what?

It's there. It's out there.
I can't control it any longer.

Let the Swiss go and make
the arrests

and let the chips
fall where they may.

Fortunately the Swiss just,
they started going after

these guys at 6 a.m.
in Zurich time.

We start hearing: "so
and so is in custody.

So and so is in custody.

So and so is in custody."
And then, you're relieved.

- I was stationed in Rome on
that day, by 7:00 my phone

was blowing up from all
my Italian law enforcement

contacts who were seeing
the news,

who were all soccer fans.
They loved it.

They couldn't believe it.

In an early
morning police raid,

Swiss authorities were seen
escorting several senior FIFA

officials from Zurich's luxury
Baur au Lac hotel.

Seven men at the hotel
were arrested,

including FIFA vice
president Jeffrey Webb.

Eight others have been indicte.

- The 47-count indictment
against these individuals

includes charges
of racketeering, wire fraud

and money laundering
conspiracies spanning
two decades.

These individuals, through
these 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.

- I have never taken a bribe
from FIFA or anybody else.

- The fact that you have
international businessmen

who are abusing the system
and basically

making the rules
for themselves.

They're using the US financial
system to do it.

And for me, that indictment and
those arrests and the pictures

of them being arrested coming
out of the hotel

with a sheet covering them
because they should

be embarrassed, sends a message
to others like them

all over the world that you
can't do everything you want

and there are going
to be consequences.

- You took something that was

Snow White clean
and made it dirty.

You took a sport that five,
six, seven-year-old kids play.

And you just made it
a dirty business.

- Yeah.
- And I think to me personally,

that's infuriating.