Putin Says FIFA Arrests Show U.S. Meddling Abroad, Backs Blatter
Source: Reuters/Huffington Post
Putin said the arrests in Switzerland on Wednesday were an "obvious attempt" to prevent FIFA head Sepp Blatter's re-election this week but that the 79-year-old had Russia's backing.
"If anything happened, it did not happen on U.S. territory and the United states has nothing to do with it," he said. "This is yet another blatant attempt (by the United States) to extend its jurisdiction to other states."
...
"Unfortunately, our American partners use such methods to achieve their selfish aims and illegally persecute people," he said, citing former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, both of whom have evaded prosecution in the United States for divulging secret information by hiding abroad.
"I do not rule out that in the case of FIFA, it's exactly the same," Putin said.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/28/putin-fifa-arrests-us-world-cup_n_7458470.html
Okay then.
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,937 posts)That it was his good upstanding citizens that robbed the IRS - he can sit down now. This is a dodge, deflect, and defer.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)"If anything happened, it did not happen on U.S. territory and the United states has nothing to do with it," he said. "This is yet another blatant attempt (by the United States) to extend its jurisdiction to other states."
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It seems like whatever FIFA did was only tangentially at best related to the US. If they took bribes from South Africa or Qatar, what does that have to do with us?
I remain leery of countries that claim the reach of their laws extends beyond their borders.
Oktober
(1,488 posts).... then it is absolutely under American jurisdiction.
Punx
(446 posts)If so will there be any penalty to the banks or their personnel for participating in the money laundering?
SunSeeker
(51,745 posts)That would be hard to prove. We do have FIFA execs on tape talking about getting bribes (hence their arrests) but I have not heard about us having evidence the banks knew the money was illegal. However, the feds did say these arrests are "just the beginning."
I sorta doubt that the FIFA people were walking into the banks with bags of Dollars, Rubles or Rials.
Of course if the situation was reversed and they were paying the politicians, then no crime there.
Oktober
(1,488 posts)... But the banks don't necessarily have to be complicit to be used in an illegal manner.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)governments were cooperating closely on this,
muriel_volestrangler
(101,390 posts)(which was the stupidest decision FIFA has ever made, and must have had massive bribes behind it; it made the process a laughing stock).
And, as others have said, US companies were involved:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/05/27/how-the-us-can-arrest-fifa-officials-in-switzerland-explained/
SunSeeker
(51,745 posts)FIFA could have kept getting away with the corruption if it just kept it to media rights kickbacks and such. But they jumped the shark with the Qatar bid. The execs just got too greedy, the pigs became hogs, and gorged on that Qatar bribe money, despite the millions they were already feeding on.
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,047 posts)From the BBC article linked above:
The Miami offices of Concacaf, the football federation under Fifa that governs the game in North and Central America and the Caribbean, were raided by FBI agents early on Wednesday.
Two of the people who have been charged - Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner - are the current and past heads of Concacaf, respectively.
Response to geek tragedy (Original post)
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hughee99
(16,113 posts)So, tell me more about Ukraine, Vlad?
I'm not a PR guy, but I can't imagine a single one of them said "You should align with Sepp Blatter. People love Sepp."
SunSeeker
(51,745 posts)America is the largest soccer media market in the world. It is totally our business. And the way we got the goods on those FIFA execs is that one of them, an American in New York, wore a wire for the feds after getting popped for tax evasion (same way we got Al Capone) for not reporting all those millions in bribe money he got as income. Blazer had a $19,000/mo. apartment overlooking Central Park, with a $6,000/mo. apartment right next to it just for his cats. He couldn't explain where he was getting all the money for his Caligula-style excesses.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/football/who-is-chuck-blazer/index.html
christx30
(6,241 posts)Mystery solved.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Russia will field very attractive, manly president, who will score 20 goals in ten minutes. Ukraine Nazis not allowed into glorious Russia World Cup of FIFA.