Football – FIFA scandal: Julius Bär pays more than 70 million to the United States

Swiss wealth management bank Julius Bär on Thursday agreed to pay nearly $ 80 million (71.75 million francs) to the United States to lift charges in connection with a corruption scandal within the International Federation of football (FIFA).

The financial establishment admitted in a New York court to have participated in the laundering, via the United States, of more than 36 million dollars intended for officials of FIFA and other federations “within the framework of a ploy in which sports marketing companies bribed officials to obtain the rights to broadcast football matches, ”said a statement from the US Department of Justice.

In May 2015, the US Department of Justice had indicted 14 people, including 9 senior FIFA officials, as part of a vast investigation that had led to spectacular arrests in the early morning in a large hotel in Zurich.

This scandal shook the powerful sports organization and pushed its president Sepp Blatter to leave.

Julius Bär was one of the banks whose names had been mentioned in the list of establishments used to carry out money transfers, transactions scrutinized by the American authorities.

A former Julius Bär banker, Jorge Luis Arzuaga, pleaded guilty in 2017. He was accused of having opened accounts in the name of shell companies and thus facilitated the payment of bribes to officials of the Argentine Football Federation.

The bank and its employees “have facilitated bribes and the compliance department has turned a blind eye to the blatant red flags of money laundering,” said Mark Lesko, a New York prosecutor.

According to the Justice Ministry, the bank “knew that Arzuaga’s client accounts were associated with international football, which was generally considered to carry high corruption risks”.

One of its leaders “nevertheless ordered that the opening of these accounts be accelerated in the hope that these customers would provide lucrative business,” the ministry added in the statement.

The authorities agreed to lift the charges in exchange for the payment of a fine of $ 43.32 million (38.8 million francs) and the repayment of $ 36.37 million (32.6 million francs), equivalent to bribes that passed through his accounts, as well as a commitment to respect the terms of an agreement for three years.

The resolution of the lawsuits brought by the United States “marks a new stage in Julius Bär’s continued efforts to end the regulatory and legal proceedings still in progress, in cooperation with the authorities concerned,” the bank said in a statement. .