Alongside the names of several world soccer officials that
U.S. prosecutors accused of racketeering and corruption in a Wednesday
indictment were mentions of the three largest U.S. banks by assets. J.P. Morgan
Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc were among the financial
institutions that were used to facilitate payments that were a part of a $150
million bribery scandal that involved 14 top officers at the International
Federation of Association Football, or FIFA, and other related soccer-governing
bodies.
None of the banks have been accused of wrongdoing. However,
the soccer officials who were accused of corruption relied heavily on the
United States financial system in connection with the enterprise. For instance,
in early 2008 “a high-ranking FIFA official” caused the transfer of $10 million
from a FIFA account in Switzerland through a Bank of America account in New
York and into one that had been controlled by Jack Warner, then a FIFA vice
president, as part of a kickback for selecting South Africa to host the 2010
World Cup, the indictment said. Mr. Warner then diverted “a substantial portion
of the funds” for his personal use.
In recent years, law-enforcement authorities have been
holding banks more responsible for illegal behavior that their clients carry
out and pressing them to do more to police their customers. For example,
JPMorgan agreed to pay $2.6 billion in January 2014 to settle a Department of
Justice investigation into whether it should have done more to sort out and
stop Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Although there was no indication in the indictment that the
banks were aware their networks were being used to pay out bribes as part of
the FIFA scandal, U.S. prosecutors are looking into the matter.
Click
here to access the full article on The Wall Journal.