FIFA opens bribery case against Sepp Blatter, 2 others
GENEVA — Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter is now facing a bribery case, and one of his former vice-presidents was fined more than $1 million in a separate investigation into kickbacks.
The FIFA ethics committee said Friday it opened formal proceedings against Blatter, former secretary general Jerome Valcke and former finance director Markus Kattner over million-dollar payments in their contracts — some of which were approved by other senior FIFA officials.
On a busy day for FIFA prosecutors and judges, former vice-president Jeffrey Webb was later fined 1 million Swiss francs ($1.02 million) and banned from soccer for life in another bribery case.
The record fine imposed by FIFA was surprising. A life ban for the Cayman Islands banker — once North America’s top soccer official and a one-time possible successor to Blatter — was expected after he pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal court last November to charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.