CAPE TOWN—A 2007 email shows Fifa president Sepp Blatter and then-South African President Thabo Mbeki held “discussions” over the US$10 million that ultimately went to allegedly corrupt senior soccer executives as payback for supporting the country’s World Cup bid, a newspaper claimed yesterday.
South Africa’s Sunday Times reported that the email from Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke to the South African government asks when the $10 million, characterised as a bribe by American investigators, will be transferred. The newspaper said that in the email, which was not published, Valcke wrote that the $10 million was “based on discussions between Fifa and the South African government, and also between our president (Blatter) and President Thabo Mbeki.”
US investigators alleged in their indictment into corruption in world soccer that the $10 million went to Jack Warner, who is currently on bail, as payback for him and two other Fifa executive committee members at the time for voting for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup. It was wired from Fifa to accounts controlled by Warner in three payments in early 2008, the US Department of Justice said.
Fifa and the South African government have said it was money given legitimately by South Africa through Fifa to help soccer development in the Caribbean region which Warner then supervised as president of the Caribbean Football Union. Fifa said in a statement to the Associated Press yesterday that sending money to Warner was the idea of the South African government and Blatter was being updated by Mbeki in their discussions. The correspondence from Valcke constitutes “information, not involvement” on behalf of Blatter and Valcke, Fifa said.
“This programme was initiated by the South African government for the Caribbean and it was publicly announced by them at the time,” Fifa said. Fifa denied Valcke made the transfers to Warner and said they were “authorised” on Fifa’s side by its then finance committee chairman Julio Grondona of Argentina, who died last year.
Mbeki’s office denied any involvement in bribes in a statement when the Fifa corruption scandal broke. Yesterday, Mbeki’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, referred the AP to the earlier statement denying the South African government’s involvement in any bribes when Mbeki was president.
AP
Money for Warner only
Described as money for soccer development, the South African cash ended up going to former Fifa vice president Warner and American Chuck Blazer, both then members of Fifa’s top executive committee, according to the DOJ. Blazer has admitted to receiving bribes in connection with the 2004 vote that resulted in South Africa becoming the first African nation to host the World Cup.
Warner is one of 14 soccer and marketing officials indicted and under arrest on corruption charges, which include racketeering, bribery and money laundering. Blatter announced he was quitting as Fifa president last week with the world soccer body rocked by the biggest scandal in its 111-year history. The 79-year-old Blatter has not been specifically implicated in the Justice Department investigation.
Valcke’s email pre-dates correspondence from then-chief South African World Cup organiser Danny Jordaan and then-South African Football Association president Molefi Oliphant asking Fifa to shave $10 million off South Africa’s World Cup budget to send to Warner’s regional soccer body. In Oliphant’s letter, he twice asks for the $10 million to be controlled specifically by Warner.
South Africa won the World Cup by beating Morocco 14-10 in a vote of Fifa’s ruling panel of executives in Zurich in 2004. The US DOJ alleges that vote was completely corrupted, with Warner, Blazer and an unnamed senior South American Fifa official—believed to be former finance committee chairman Grondona, who authorised the payments—all agreeing to take bribes to back South Africa.
Those three votes would have swung the ballot in South Africa’s favour. A Moroccan bid official also attempted to bribe Warner with $1 million, the DOJ alleged in its indictment documents.
The DOJ said South Africa’s $10 million was used to pay off Warner and Blazer four years after the vote and was channelled through Fifa to Warner and dressed up to look like legitimate funds for soccer development. Warner kept most of the money, while Blazer got around $750,000 out of the $1 million he was promised by Warner, according to the DOJ. The South American official doesn’t appear to have received anything.
...money used to pay debts—BBC
A BBC investigation has reportedly uncovered evidence that details what happened to the $10m sent from Fifa to accounts controlled by former vice-president Jack Warner. The money, sent on behalf of South Africa, was meant to be used for its Caribbean diaspora legacy programme, the BBC reported yesterday.
But documents suggest Warner used the payment for cash withdrawals, personal loans and to launder money. The 72-year-old, who has been indicted by the US FBI for corruption, denies all claims of wrongdoing. Fifa says it is co-operating with the investigation. And South Africa’s Football Association has issued a detailed statement denying any wrongdoing.
The papers seen by the BBC detail three wire transfers by Fifa. In the three transactions—on January 4, February 1 and March 10 2008—funds totalling US$10m (£6.5m) from Fifa accounts were received into Concacaf accounts controlled by Warner. At the time, he was in charge of the body, which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
The money had been promised by South Africa’s Football Association for its so-called diaspora legacy programme to develop football in the Caribbean. The documents reveal how the money was spent and moved around. JTA Supermarkets, a large chain in Trinidad owned and directed by Carl Mack, who is also a director at One Caribbean Media Group (OCM), received US$4,860,000 from the accounts.
The money was paid in instalments from January 2008 to March 2009. The largest payment was US$1,350,000 paid in February 2008. US prosecutors say the money was mostly paid back to Warner in local currency. The BBC gave details of its investigation to Brent Sancho, Trinidad and Tobago’s sports minister and a former footballer. He said: “He (Mr Warner) must face justice, he must answer all of these questions. Justice has to be served.
“He will have to account, with this investigation, he will have to answer for his actions.” The documents also show US$360,000 of the Fifa money was withdrawn by people connected to Warner. Nearly US$1.6m was used to pay the former Fifa vice-president’s credit cards and personal loans. The documents show the largest personal loan Warner provided for himself was US$410,000. The largest credit card payment was US$87,000.
Sancho says he is now angry and disappointed. “I’m devastated because a lot of that money should have been back in football, back in the development of children playing the sport. It is a travesty. Mr Warner should answer the questions,” he added. Warner is one of 14 people charged by US prosecutors over alleged corruption at Fifa.
The US Justice department alleges the 14 accepted bribes and kickbacks estimated at more than US$150m (£97m) over a 24-year period. Warner denies all charges of corruption. He resigned from Fifa’s executive committee and all other football commitments in 2011 amid allegations he had bribed his Caribbean associates. He later stepped down as T&T’s security minister amid a fraud inquiry.
A key figure in the deepening scandal, in a recent statement he said he had given lawyers documents outlining the links between Fifa, its funding, himself and the 2010 general election in T&T. He said the transactions also included Blatter. Warner, who faces extradition to the US, was released on TT$2.5 million bail after handing himself in to police in Port-of-Spain last week. He says he is an innocent scapegoat who will soon reveal the truth of what happened inside Fifa.
The announcement of the FBI charges in late May has driven Fifa into its greatest crisis; last week its president, Sepp Blatter announced he was stepping down, only days after being re-elected to a fifth term. (BBC)