patrick.net

US charged FIFA with various criminal counts (i.e. bribery, RICO) and was able to assert US law via the "Minimum Contacts" analysis developed after Intl Shoe v. Washington https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/326/310/case.html and (possibly) the expansive jurisdiction developed under Zippo. http://euro.ecom.cmu.edu/program/law/08-732/Jurisdiction/GladstoneDeterminingJurisdiction.pdf The few people directly charged were due to their minimum contacts within the US. (i.e. one guy flew to NY to pick up a bribery check) and the rest followed via the conspiracy elements of the law.

Note too that the prosecution is joint with Swiss authorities who acted the same day that the US issued the arrests. Reason being is that FIFA is a legal entity (corporation, trust, LLC, etc) registered in Switzerland and avails itself and consents to the laws of Switzerland. Incidentally, this is the flip side of the "corporations are people too" principal that has existed in every western country forever. As such, the entire entity is considered a legal person and can be sued and (if successful) taken for all its worth.

I suppose you could argue that if FIFA made clear that the WC bidding process was going to be corrupt and predicated on who can stuff the most cash into any individual(s) pocket, you could probably argue that no law was violated in that each entity that is a member of FIFA (i.e. UEFA, CONCACAF) consented to these rules in advance. However FIFA indicated that the bidding process would be as part of a transparent, merit based, process. IOW, state from the beginning that the whole thing is corrupt and BS, and you could possibly get away with it.

OK, so what I still don't understand is what U.S. law is being violated by bribing a FIFA employee to accept your bid to host the World Cup in your country.

It makes sense that bribing senators should be illegal, although it's apparently not in the United States as we just call that lobbying. But FIFA is not a government agency. It's a Swiss Corporation. How does bribing employees of a Swiss corporation violate U.S. laws even the bribery takes part partly or even wholly on U.S. soil? Bribery itself isn't illegal. Bribing government officials is illegal, but bribing your child with ice cream to get him to quiet down and behave isn't illegal.

Let's say I work for a bakery. In come two customers. They both want the same cake and I have to decide who gets to buy it. One of them offers me $20 to let them buy it and I accept. It's perfectly reasonable for my boss to fire me over accepting this bribe, but it's not a crime and the police should not arrest me for it. The managers are FIFA are perfectly within their rights to fire those accepting bribes, which they won't because they are the ones accepting the bribes, but how does this bribery become a criminal matter? What U.S. law makes it illegal for Qatar officials to bribe FIFA employees to sell them the World Cup hosting rights?

Pentagon Paid Up To $6.8 Million Of Taxpayer Money To Pro Sports Teams For Military Tributes

The Department of Defense doled out as much as $6.8 million in taxpayer money to professional sports teams to honor the military at games and events over the past four years, an amount it has “downplayed” amid scrutiny, a report unveiled by two Senate Republicans on Wednesday found.

The 145-page report released Wednesday dives deeper, revealing that 72 of the 122 professional sports contracts analyzed contained items deemed “paid patriotism” — the payment of taxpayer or Defense funds to teams in exchange for tributes like NFL’s “Salute to Service.” Honors paid for by the DOD were found not only in the NFL, but also the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS. They included on-field color guard ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, and ceremonial first pitches and puck drops.

The NFL’s Atlanta Falcons took more money from DOD than any other professional sports franchise. From 2012 to 2015, the Falcons received $879,000 from the Georgia Army National Guard for assorted promotions. The New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens each received at least $500,000 for similar activities over that span.

So, the U.S. military did with various American sports what Qatar did with the world cup. Shouldn't the leaders of the U.S. armed forces, the NFL, and all other major sports franchises be arrested for the exact same thing as the FIFA leaders? It's the same corruption. Isn't it? It's people bribing those who own sporting events for access to use those sporting events.

Wire Fraud under 18 USC 1300 series et seq. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343. The basic law (prior to, but carried over to the USC series) was upheld in Durand and has since been expanded significantly especially in the 1930s in connection with the expansive reading of Art I Sec VIII of the Constitution.

Taking your bakery case further - assume the bakery was in France with 2 French citizens wanting the cake. If the offeror were to call his French brother who happened to be in the US and said, "hey, please send me $20 so I can bribe this guy and get the cake" you arguably have established a prima facie case under 18 USC because you utilized the US infrastructure (commerce) and get the jurisdictional hook via the minimal contacts doctrine - and then the 2 guys physically located in France via conspiracy. You can certainly argue that this is ridiculous for the US to have authority to prosecute under these circumstances, but that is against the trend under the caselaw. Ironically, the only justice to consistently argue against the expansive reading of 18 USC was Scalia who aint here no more. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/489/705/case.html#722

In reality, the reason this case above would not be prosecuted is scarce federal resources. FBI and DOJ wont even think of pursuing a case unless the "cake" was 250K or more - anything less than that is strictly up to the civil system. I know this because I happen to have a client who had approximately 50K in losses and a perfect fact pattern for 18 USC. However, the federal prosecutors I spoke to cant divert guys from their large cases to pursue this one, and my guy cant justify hiring a trial lawyer and spending 20K in attorneys fees to pursue the 50k case. Thus for him, he wishes there were 3X more federal cops out there so he could get some justice.

CDon says

Wire Fraud under 18 USC 1300

OK, so how did FIFA commit wire fraud? I don't follow the bakery example as bribing an employee of a Swiss company isn't wire fraud or any kind of fraud whatsoever.

It seems the the U.S. is trying to find any excuse to exercise control over an organization that is doing legal, albeit scummy, things they don't like.

I'm not defending FIFA, but it's a bit scary that the U.S. government can simply make up any shit and arrest any person in the world for political reasons, and get away with that because of some obscure technicality.

Part of FIFA is the Concacaf region which covers north american, carribean and central american natiions. So, if any of the concacaf officials are implicated in the kickback/bribery scheme (and they were), the U.S would have full right to go after the violators for racketeering charges.

On another level, this whole scandal just shows how corrupt Fifa truly is. In my view, there's no greater "bread and circus" sporting event than world cup soccer. It is not even close. While the event is fun and I enjoy watching the competition, it is undeniable that it brings out certain nationalistic tribal tendencies amongst the fans. It is probably the only time that 3rd world citizens can live vicariously through their teams' success and stick it to the 1st world westerners in case they achieve the favorable results. For the 90 minutes of the game and thereafter, they can forget about their miseries and bask in their team's reflected glory. For the FIFA "leadership" to exploit this and personally profit from this perfectly symbolizes the current hostilities and battles between the plebes and elites on all fronts.

This corruption combined with previous proven cases of match fixing due to gambler meddling taints the sport in a way that other major sports/league just do not rival.

dublin hillz says

Part of FIFA is the Concacaf region which covers north american, carribean and central american natiions.

You'll have to explain this. I don't see the connection between FIFA doing business in the U.S. and a FIFA official taking a kickback from Qatar to license the World Cup to that country.

dublin hillz says

On another level, this whole scandal just shows how corrupt Fifa truly is.

Sure FIFA is greedy and corrupt, but greed and corruption in themselves are not crimes. If they were, we'd have to arrest every single board member of every single Fortune 500 company.

dublin hillz says

This corruption combined with previous proven cases of match fixing due to gambler meddling taints the sport in a way that other major sports/league just do not rival.

And that's a great reason for the fans to simply stop watching FIFA events including the World Cup, and they should. However, I don't see how that is a basis for one nation-state to start arresting citizens of other countries. It is not the American government's responsibility or right to manage the commercial sports industry.

Frankly, if the owners of FIFA want to, the have the right to auction off the World Cup and pocket all the profits. FIFA literally owns the World Cup. They don't own football, but they do own the World Cup. If people don't like FIFA -- and there is plenty of just reason to hate them -- then they should just start a non-profit international football tournament that is governed by committee with members from every nation and then replace the World Cup with this new, non-corrupt tournament.

Dan8267 says

You'll have to explain this. I don't see the connection between FIFA doing business in the U.S. and a FIFA official taking a kickback from Qatar to license the World Cup to that country.

"According to the indictment that $10 million bribe was paid by the government of South Africa to help secure the 2010 Word Cup. The money, originally disguised as a charitable contribution ended up in a bank account controlled by former FIFA vice President Jack Warner, a Trinidadian who then ran the North American, Central American and Caribbean Confederation of FIFA, which was headquartered in New York. He is currently fighting extradition to the U.S."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fifa-60-minutes-steve-kroft/

dublin hillz says

Part of FIFA is the Concacaf region which covers north american, carribean and central american natiions. So, if any of the concacaf officials are implicated in the kickback/bribery scheme (and they were), the U.S would have full right to go after the violators for racketeering charges.

Correct. Its probably no coincidence that Chuck Blazer, resident of NY and holding Concacaf and FIFA positions was one of the first arrested, and turned states witness. If we know for a fact that the cased "touched and concerned" NY for jurisdictional grounds with the rest flowing therefrom.

Dan8267 says

OK, so how did FIFA commit wire fraud? I don't follow the bakery example as bribing an employee of a Swiss company isn't wire fraud or any kind of fraud whatsoever.

18 USC comes in to play if and only if they call or contact "their guy in the US" in the furtherance of the fraud as they did in my slight modification of the French Bakers hypo where they called their cousin who just happened to be in the US to get the $20 for the cake.

Dan8267 says

I'm not defending FIFA, but it's a bit scary that the U.S. government can simply make up any shit and arrest any person in the world for political reasons, and get away with that because of some obscure technicality.

Noted - but it was the same line of wire fraud/ mail fraud cases that took down Chuck Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, et al. The law is what it is.

Dan8267 says

You'll have to explain this. I don't see the connection between FIFA doing business in the U.S. and a FIFA official taking a kickback from Qatar to license the World Cup to that country.

If you read 18 USC, and the resulting caselaw, phone calls to and from the US gives the US the jurisdictional hook. Just as it was with the French bakers in the hypo calling the guy in NY for the $20 --- once FIFA picked up the phone in NY, flew in and out of JFK with kickback checks, deposited the funds into US bank accounts, the minimum contacts is satisfied for jurisdictional purposes, and everything else flows therefrom.

dublin hillz says

According to the indictment that $10 million bribe was paid by the government of South Africa to help secure the 2010 Word Cup.

OK, but I see no reason why the bribe itself is illegal.

dublin hillz says

The money, originally disguised as a charitable contribution ended up in a bank account controlled by former FIFA vice President Jack Warner, a Trinidadian who then ran the North American, Central American and Caribbean Confederation of FIFA, which was headquartered in New York.

So it's tax evasion and subsequent money laundering then. That would make sense if Jack Warner had to pay income taxes to the United States. Is that the case?

CDon says

Noted - but it was the same line of wire fraud/ mail fraud cases that took down Chuck Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, et al.

I don't see how taking a bribe is wire fraud. FIFA didn't steal any money.

CDon says

once FIFA picked up the phone in NY, flew in and out of JFK with kickback checks, deposited the funds into US bank accounts, the minimum contacts is satisfied for jurisdictional purposes

I get that, but that assumes a crime has been committed. What is the actual crime? Getting a kickback isn't a crime if your not a government agent. Depositing funds for a kickback isn't a crime. Taking a bribe on the job might get you fired, but it's not a crime if your just working in a corporation.

Tax evasion would be a crime, but that doesn't seem to be what they are going after the FIFA managers for.

Does the U.S. government have a legitimate case, including the intent of the law, against the FIFA personnel or is this a case of "we can't get you on real charges, so we'll find a technicality"?

Doesn't seem that mysterious.

Criminal Fraud:

Misrepresentation of a material fact
Knowledge on the part of the accused that they were misrepresenting the fact
The misrepresentation was made purposefully, with the intent of fooling the victim
The victim believed the misrepresentation and relied upon it
The victim suffered damages as a result of the misrepresentation

The fraud exists because the process that is claiming to be transparent is in fact rigged by bribes, causing loss to the victims of the bribery. Bribes aren't open bids

Communications and possibly transfers for the fraud/bribes conducted by one of the international branches/agents of the organization in the USA using USA mails, phones, wires etc: wire fraud under section 18.

Ceffer says

The fraud exists because the process that is claiming to be transparent is in fact rigged by bribes, causing loss to the victims of the bribery.

That would apply to the rigging of the Libor rate. Bank officials setting the Libor rate victimized everyone with an adjustable mortgage.

Not getting the world cup doesn't cost a country anything. However, if this is the basis of the charges, FIFA could avoid future charges simply by stating that the World Cup assignment is solely determined at their discretion using proprietary information including but not limited to bids. Then it's not fraud, right? It's still plenty scummy, but it's not fraud.

I wouldn't be surprised if FIFA's lawyers finds some loophole in the fine print of their contracts that give discretion to their organization over assigning the World Cup. How good of a case does the U.S. government have?

FIFA is soccer, I'd rather watch paint dry - so I don't care.