Sepp Blatter might not escape punishment for crimes or misdemeanors he allegedly committed in the distant past as a FIFA official.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing Blatter’s possible role in a £66.2 million ($100 million) bribery scandal in the 1990s, according to Andrew Jennings of The BBC’s current affairs show “Panorama.”
Jennings claims to have seen a letter the FBI possesses that former FIFA president Joao Havelange wrote about payments he and former Brazilian soccer powerbroker Ricardo Teixeira received from sports marketing company ISL in exchange for television and marketing rights to tournaments in the 1990s.
“Blatter had ‘full knowledge of all activities’ and was ‘always apprised’ of them,” Havelange wrote, according to Jennings.
Blatter has for years denied knowledge of the payments, and FIFA cleared him of wrongdoing in 2013.
However, U.S. and Swiss authorities have uncovered mounds of new evidence during their widening investigation into the FIFA bribery and corruption scandal. Only select law-enforcement officials know exactly who or what the FBI is looking at, and no one is willing to identify their targets until the U.S. Justice Department unseals indictments.
Nevertheless, the long arm of the law appears to be nearing Blatter, 79, as his days as FIFA’s leader come to an infamous conclusion.
Blatter’s exit meaningless without reforms >>
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@SINow
