Julius Baer is Switzerland's third-largest bank
Keystone
The private bank Julius Baer has dismissed an employee in connection with the corruption scandal at FIFA, the world football governing body based in Zurich.
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A spokesman for the bank on Tuesday said a client advisor had been fired in connection with corrupt dealings at FIFA and no longer works at the bank.
Following the arrests of several senior FIFA officials on corruption charges last May, Julius Baer opened an internal investigation into the affair and said it was fully cooperating with authorities.
Julius Baer is Switzerland’s third-largest bank and was one of several financial intermediaries mentioned in the United States’ Department of Justice charges against the FIFA officials.
So far, 39 individuals and two entities have been accused of being involved in corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering at FIFA over the past 25 years.
About $80 million (CHF80.4 million) of assets deposited in 13 accounts have been frozen.
The Swiss justice authorities are working on the investigation along with their US counterparts, and several individuals arrested in Switzerland have since been extradited to the US.
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The Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday that 133 reports of suspicious financial activity linked to FIFA’s decisions to let Russia and Qatar host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals are being investigated.
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The United States Justice Department has announced charges against 16 additional world football officials after further arrests took place on Thursday in Zurich.
Those charged include five current and former members of FIFA’s executive committee, which met later in the day to announce reforms to the world governing body. In total, nearly a dozen people who have served on that committee have now been charged with corruption.
“The betrayal of trust that is set forth here is truly outrageous,” Lynch said of the charges against FIFA executives.
Among those charged on Thursday were Marco Polo del Nero, a Brazilian who served on the executive committee from 2012 until last week; Rafael Salguero, a Guatemalan who left the executive committee in May; former South American confederation secretary general Eduardo Deluca; former Peru soccer federation president Manuel Burga; and current Bolivian soccer president Carlos Chaves, already jailed in his own country.
Lynch also said the United States would seek to extradite Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay and Alfredo Hawit of Honduras following their arrests in Zurich Thursday morning at the Baur au Lac hotel.
She continued that eight defendants in the corruption investigation have now plead guilty to the charges.
Lynch also thanked Swiss authorities who she said had been “instrumental” in the ongoing investigation.
More to follow.
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