The greatest exports of the United States have been McDonalds, blue jeans, rock ‘n’ roll, and of course laws that they stretch to worldwide jurisdiction. All roads lead to Washington, not Rome. Outside the USA, the FIFA arrests have sparked a huge controversy as to why the USA becomes involved in soccer when they do not really participate in the sport on a major level. To answer that question you have to understand that having ANY contact with the USA places your organization at risk of U.S. law, no matter where you are.
Chuck Blazer rose high in FIFA and by 2011 was living the high life in two apartments – one for him and one, reputedly, for his cats – above FIFA’s regional office in nearby Trump Tower in New York City. It was a major mistake to have an office in the USA, as that opens doors for prosecution in the USA for alleged crimes elsewhere. What you have to understand is that the United States has CONSPIRACY where most other countries do not recognize that concept as a crime.
CONSPIRACY is highly dangerous, for they do not need to prove you did anything, the crime is merely an “agreement.” How do they prove CONSPIRACY? All one must do is threaten someone into admitting that they committed a crime that you somehow agreed to in some fashion, even if the other person is the one whom committed the act.
In the case of FIFA, agents from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and FBI wanted to know why Blazer failed to pay taxes on his share of $151 million in alleged bribes and kickbacks, which are said to have been sloshing through FIFA’s hands for two generations. According to the New York Daily News, the agents said to him, “We can take you away in handcuffs now, or you can cooperate.” Blazer then became the government’s rat, fearing prison he will give up everything and everyone to save himself. When my own case began, the FBI and I took a walk in the park before going into court. They used the same line – “This can go all away.” They wanted to turn me into a rat. My lawyer warned me that would be the pitch and that I should say no. Otherwise, I would have been a plant in the industry for the rest of my life, forced to give them info and to show up as some expert witness here and there.
The Swiss police, acting on behalf of the FBI, burst into the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich at dawn to arrest seven other FIFA officials, revealing charges against seven further defendants. The arrests in Switzerland illustrate just how different the prosecutors act in the USA compared to Switzerland. In Zurich, the officials were led out behind white sheets held up by hotel staff to protect them from waiting cameras. In the USA, the prosecutors use such arrests to further their personal careers to become famous. American prosecutors love to display the people they arrest to the media, since it furthers their personal careers to land one of those big paying jobs or enter politics. At the Miami headquarters of FIFA’s North American branch, the arrested officers were put on display, not shielded.
All the USA needs is to turn one person and that proves the CONSPIRACY. So any organization can be charged by any office branch that will lead them right back to the headquarters, no matter where you are. That is how U.S. law operates. Yes, on the surface they assume FIFA is the World Cup, which is not a big sport in the USA, so why is the USA getting involved? The real question: why did they have offices in the USA to start with? This is how they took down the Swiss banks. Any branch in the USA opens the door all the way back to the headquarters. If you do not understand U.S. law, you better say out of the game.
With Chuck Blazer now a government rat, he can spill the beans or make up anything to keep some of his cash and avoid prison time. The rest will just fall like dominoes. They will put Blazer on the stand and he can say he did this or that, and they knew about it, and are thus guilty of the crime of CONSPIRACY.
