Banned former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his chief lieutenants were under fresh investigation on Friday over alleged illicit salaries and bonuses totalling US$80 million, FIFA’s ethics committee said.
Soccer’s scandal-plagued ruling body in June said that between 2011 and last year Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner had skimmed off the sum in “a coordinated effort” to “enrich themselves.”
It said it has passed on details to Swiss police, who along with US authorities are pursuing dozens of former soccer bosses over widespread corruption at the highest levels of the game.
In a statement, the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee announced it had now opened “formal proceedings” against the three men, who it suspects of bribery, conflict of interest and corruption.
Once the most powerful man in world soccer, Blatter is already serving a six-year ban from the game over ethics violations relating to a suspect US$2 million payment he authorized in 2011 to former UEFA boss Michel Platini. Valcke was banned for 12 years, reduced to 10 on appeal, over misconduct regarding television deals and 2014 World Cup ticket sales.
Kattner, who briefly succeeded Valcke as Blatter’s right-hand man, was fired in May over “breaches” involving millions of dollars.
“Under the FIFA code of ethics, the investigatory chamber shall examine all circumstances of the cases equally,” the statement said. “For reasons linked to privacy rights and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the investigatory chamber will not publish further details at the present time.”
Blatter, 80, who is fighting to overturn his ban from football, declined to make comment about the latest case against him.
However, people close to Blatter and Kattner say both men strongly deny the allegations.
Separately, former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb has been banned from all soccer-related activities for life, FIFA said.
Webb was found guilty of charges including conflicts of interest and bribery and corruption. He was also fined 1 million Swiss francs (US$1.02 million).
Webb, who had been close to Blatter, was among those arrested in a dawn raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, in May last year by Swiss police acting on a US warrant.
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