Swiss Bank Admits to Laundering $36 Million in Bribes to Soccer Officials [View all]
Source: Newsweek
A Swiss bank agreed to pay $79.7 million in penalties after admitting to laundering over $36 million in bribes paid to international soccer officials on Thursday.
Bank Julius Baer, the third largest Swiss bank, will pay a $43.3 million fine and forfeit another $36.4 million for conducting the transactions between February 2013 and May 2015, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The settlement is part of a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
DOJ says the bank knowingly laundered the money through the U.S. "to conceal the true nature of the payments and promote the fraud." The bribery scheme involved sports marketers giving illicit payments to officials from global soccer governing body FIFA and South American governing body CONMEBOL in exchange for the rights to broadcast soccer matches.
"Bank Julius Baer pursued the profit it could make laundering corrupt funds derived from a criminal scheme run by powerful FIFA officials," William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York Field Office, said in a statement. "Their behavior has earned them the equivalent of a red card, and the money the bank now owes the U.S. government is more than double what it admits to laundering."
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/swiss-bank-admits-to-laundering-dollar36-million-in-bribes-to-soccer-officials/ar-AAKslWM?li=BBnb7Kz
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