Governing Bodies
Swiss bank Julius Baer to pay US$80 million to end FIFA laundering probe
Julius Baer Group Ltd will pay almost US$80 million (S$106 million) to resolve a US probe of its role in the payment of tens of millions of dollars in bribes to leaders of Fifa, the governing body for world football.
The United States charged the Swiss private bank with a money-laundering conspiracy and will drop the case in three years as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement, if the bank meets certain conditions. Federal prosecutors and the bank’s general counsel appeared in a video conference on Thursday (May 27) before US District Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn, New York.
Julius Baer will pay a fine of US$43.3 million and forfeit US$36.4 million. The bank said in November it had set aside US$79.7 million to resolve the case. It has cooperated with US authorities since 2015 in a corruption investigation involving officials and affiliates of Fifa and associated sports media and marketing firms.
The bank “agreed with sports marketing executives and football officials to launder at least US$36,368,400 in bribe payments through the United States in furtherance of a scheme in which sports marketing companies bribed football officials in exchange for broadcasting rights to football matches,” according to a statement of facts that Julius Baer admitted.
The bank declined to comment on the agreement.
Massive crackdown
The pact is part of a massive US crackdown on corruption in Fifa that led to at least 26 guilty pleas as well as deferred- or non-prosecution agreements involving several sports marketing and athletic apparel corporations.
A former Julius Baer banker, Jorge Arzuaga, was sentenced in November to three years of probation for facilitating the payment of bribes to the presidents of the Argentine Football Federation and the South American Football Confederation. He cooperated with investigators.
While the bank contacted prosecutors shortly after the US made its first Fifa arrests in May 2015, it failed to “come forward with all evidence pertaining to the involvement of senior management,” according to court papers. That conduct involved two senior managers, including one executive board member. Neither manager was named.
Since then, the bank has made a “significant effort to remediate its historically deficient compliance programme,” spending US$112 million on a three-year programme to bolster its anti-money laundering controls, the papers said.
The bank has faced other scandals in recent years.
In 2018, former banker Matthias Krull was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a plot to launder US$1.2 billion stolen from Venezuela’s state-owned oil producer, Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
In 2016, the bank paid US$547 million and signed a deferred-prosecution agreement after admitting it helped thousands of Americans conceal billions of dollars in assets from the US Internal Revenue Service. Two bankers pleaded guilty.
And in March, Julius Baer announced that Swiss regulator Finma was lifting a ban on complex acquisitions it imposed on the bank in February 2020 over its inadequate money-laundering controls.
–BLOOMBERG
Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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