Blazer Becomes ‘key witness’ For The FBI..... ‘A rare look into the shadowy finances of international football...’ Story Created: Nov 2, 2014 at 11:08 PM ECT The most crucial Olympic ring of the 2012 London Games was a simple key chain, wired for sound and presented to top international soccer executive Chuck Blazer, who was a cooperating witness for United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, an investigation by US media group Daily News has found. The corrupt and corpulent Blazer, once the sport’s number one power broker in the United States and ally of former FIFA vice-president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation special adviser Jack Warner, is alleged to have collected untold millions during his 20-year reign at Concacaf—running up a staggering US$29 million in credit card charges to help fuel his extravagant lifestyle, which included a pricey Trump Tower apartment for his cats, the Daily News story said. It stated that the “feds” flipped the 450-pound Blazer, who at the behest of the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) discreetly placed his keychain—a tiny microphone embedded in its specially-altered fob—on a nearby table as a parade of international figures visited Blazer at various venues, including the London Olympics. The Daily News also reported that “wily Trinidadian politician” Warner headed Concacaf, the FIFA-affiliated governing body for soccer in North America and the Caribbean for 21 years until his resignation in 2011 amid a FIFA election scandal. The Daily News said for two decades, Blazer was his lieutenant, the two men enriching themselves beyond measure, according to internal reports produced by Concacaf and FIFA. But when Warner was caught handing out envelopes of cash to Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members in Port of Spain in 2011, Blazer ratted him out, leading Warner to resign from FIFA, after setting out to expose Blazer’s own corrupt misdeeds, the News story said. Blazer’s co-operation provided American criminal investigators in the Eastern District of New York a rare window into the shadowy financing of international soccer, a world notorious for its corruption and lavish excess. Blazer, now 69 and gravely ill with colon cancer, emerged at the epicentre of a sprawling criminal investigation in which authorities are angling to link fraud and money-laundering to the highest levels of soccer around the world ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Blazer’s long-time wing man was Warner, now exiled from world soccer. For years, Warner was Concacaf president and Blazer was its secretary general—“the man behind the man”, as Blazer would describe himself. Once the two men were ousted, Concacaf launched an investigation that produced the 144-page integrity report that accused the duo of committing fraud against the organisation, breaching their fiduciary duties, violating Concacaf and FIFA statutes, misappropriating funds and violating US tax laws. Blazer had anticipated this moment since Mohamed bin Hammam, the ex-FIFA vice-president from Qatar, allegedly handed out envelopes stuffed with US$40,000 cash to CFU officials in a bid to unseat president Sepp Blatter atop FIFA, an investigation concluded. Concacaf represented a unified block of votes in FIFA business affairs. The payoffs came at a summit meeting of the Caribbean Football Union. According to a 2011 report prepared by the Freeh Group, bin Hammam gave a short presentation and fielded questions before directing officials to a conference room where each would receive a gift for attending. “I opened the envelope, which was stapled, and stacks of US$100 bills fell out of the envelope and onto the table,” said Frederick Lunn, vice-president of the Bahamas Football Association (BFA), in an affidavit obtained by The News, the story said. “I was stunned to see this cash. I asked them what it was and it was US$40,000. They said it was a gift from the CFU.” Lunn, who declined the “gift”, said in his affidavit that he was not authorised to accept such payments and he was flying through the United States on his way home—where he would have to declare his windfall. He was instructed to keep his mouth shut about the cash. The Daily News said word of the “gifts” reached Blazer through Lunn, who not only reported the exchange to the BFA president but photographed the cash inside a brown envelope. Blazer had little choice but to turn Warner in to FIFA, lest he be seen as a co-conspirator. He reported Warner’s possible violations of FIFA’s ethics code to the soccer body’s secretary general Jerome Valcke. Fearing the wrath of Warner and his allies, Blazer began moving computers from place to place, often conducting business from the edge of his bed, wearing only his boxers and an oversized Ralph Lauren polo shirt. Concacaf employees scurried up and down the elevators to get their marching orders and obtain his signatures. The Daily News said Warner ripped the ensuing investigation by Freeh’s group as “a farce” and resigned all his soccer posts before he could be banned for life. FIFA’s ethics committee banned bin Hammam, but not before Qatar secured the 2022 World Cup, a stunning December 2, 2010 decision announced by Blatter and instantly viewed around the world as evidence of rampant corruption in the bidding process. The Middle East country had no venues, little soccer tradition, and summer heat so intense that the global competition could be moved to the winter—opposite the Winter Olympics and the Champions League tournament. FIFA was forced to commission an investigation by former federal prosecutor Michael Garcia, once the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Garcia has conducted a lengthy investigation of the suspicious 2010 executive committee vote that awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar, respectively. Blazer is not believed to have cooperated with Garcia’s probe. The Daily News said Blazer anticipated Warner would find a way to retaliate for a clear act of treason by his former loyal colleague. According to one source familiar with both, the pair spoke constantly, socialised frequently, hit the strip clubs in tandem, and shared in the easy money flowing around them. Some in Blazer’s circle believe Warner sicced the feds on him, suggesting they take a close look at his tax returns. Others say Blazer was in the feds’ sights for years; he had socialised with at least one FBI agent who attended Blazer’s 60th birthday party at Elaine’s in New York in 2005, according to sources, the Daily News stated.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:29:59 +0000
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