Argentine exec pleads not guilty in FIFA case

Yahoo – AFP, 31 July 2015

A photograph taken from the Wanted Persons link at
the Interpol site shows Argentinian sports marketing
executive Alejandro Burzaco who has been indicted
by US authorities in the FIFA corruption scandal 
on June 9, 2015 (AFP Photo)

New York (AFP) - An Argentine sports marketing executive on Friday pleaded not guilty and posted a $20 million bond after appearing in a US court to face charges related to the FIFA corruption scandal.

Alejandro Burzaco surrendered to Italian police in June before flying to New York to face US justice in a case that has rocked world soccer.

He is one of 14 FIFA officials and sports marketing executives accused of soliciting and receiving more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks spanning 24 years.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch unveiled the 47-count indictment in May.

Burzaco, 51, pleaded not guilty to three charges of racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy and posted a $20 million bond for his release, underwritten by friends and family.

The defendant cut an elegant figure in the US federal court in Brooklyn, dressed in a dark suit, a pale blue tie and a crisp white shirt, and responded politely to the magistrate's questions.

Government prosecutors told Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon that Burzaco was not considered a flight risk given that he had handed himself in overseas.

Burzaco's decision to surrender has triggered speculation he may be poised to negotiate a deal with prosecutors.

His lawyer made no comment after leaving court.

The assets put up to guarantee the $20 million bond offered a breathtaking insight into the wealth that the dual Argentine-Italian citizen has accumulated, and the trust of close friends and family.

$15 million company share

They include cash deposits of $3.3 million, to be made by October 1, three properties in the United States owned by his sister and a close friend.

It also included Burzaco's 20 percent ownership of a company -- a share estimated to be worth more than $15 million.

Among the six relatives and friends underwriting his bond were a sister with an annual income of $300,000 and a net worth of more than $1 million and a friend with an estimated net worth of more than $10 million.

Burzaco's ex-wife, who was also in court, had flown from Buenos Aires to support him, his lawyer told the magistrate.

Among conditions of his release are that he live in an FBI-approved residence within 50 miles of the court.

He must surrender his passports to the FBI, submit to electronic tagging and restrict his movements to New York and Long Island.

On July 18, former FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb also pleaded not guilty in connection with the same scandal.

Arrested in Switzerland in May, he was the only one not to fight extradition.

The Cayman Islands-British citizen posted a $10 million bond and was ordered not to stray further than 20 miles of the courthouse.

Argentinian FIFA suspect hands himself in

Yahoo – AFP, 9 June 2015

A member of Interpol is seen speaking with staff at the headquarters of Torneos y 

Competencias during a raid in Buenos Aires on May 29, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Rome (AFP) - Argentinian sports marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco, who has been indicted by US authorities in the FIFA corruption scandal, turned himself into police in Italy on Tuesday.

Burzaco, 50, was held in Bolzano, near Italy's northern border with Switzerland after "turning up spontaneously" at a police station with his two lawyers, police said in a statement.

Burzaco was briefly detained in a cell and was then allowed to leave the police station but placed under house arrest, Italian news agency AGI reported.

The Argentinian, who also has Italian citizenship, had already rented a house near Bolzano in expectation of being placed under house arrest, reports said.

Burzaco's whereabouts had been a mystery since seven FIFA executives were arrested in the Swiss city of Zurich on May 27, the eve of a FIFA Congress.

According to reports, Burzaco was in the hotel where the executives were cuffed and promptly disappeared in the knowledge he was likely to be on the indicted list.

It is believed he was not in his hotel room at the time because he was having breakfast.

He is one of 14 current or former FIFA officials and sports marketing executives indicted over the scandal. He had been placed under an Interpol "red notice".

The 14 are accused by US prosecutors of taking part in a sweeping kickbacks scheme going back 20 years involving a total of $150 million (133 million euros) in bribes.

Members of Interpol are seen at the headquarters of Argentine sports

 broadcaster Torneos y Competencias during a raid in Buenos Aires on

May 29, 2015 (AFP Photo)

'Bribes for TV rights'

Burzaco is wanted by the US Department of Justice authorities in connection with his role as president of sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias.

The US authorities suspect him of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to win and retain the media rights contracts for football tournaments in Latin America.

The Torneos y Competencias company held the television rights for the Argentinian league between 1992-2009 and in association with Aaron Davidson, president of Traffic Sports USA who was arrested in Zurich, and another company, Full Play, hold the rights for the Copa America tournament which kicks off in Chile next month.

The whereabouts of Full Play owners, Argentinian father and son Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, are unknown.

The revelations have thrown the world of football into turmoil and led to the resignation of long-serving FIFA president Sepp Blatter last week, just four days after his re-election for a fifth successive term.

USA head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, a World Cup-winning striker for West Germany in 1990, said Tuesday he expects there to be more revelations in the scandal.

"If there is one thing I know for sure, when the American authorities have evidence, then they see things through and more things will come out," Klinsmann said in Cologne ahead of a friendly match against Germany.

"The whole world is wishing that FIFA will be cleaned up and those who comply will do things differently in the long term."

Businessman Burzaco, wanted over FIFA scandal, surrenders

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Camorra mob boss arrested in Brazil after 30 years on the run

Brazilian police have captured Pasquale Scotti, one of the most wanted mobsters in Italy, officials have said. The fugitive had started a new life in Brazil after changing his name and appearance.

Deutsche Welle, 27 May 2015

Pasquale Scotti was arrested in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife, in a joint operation with Interpol, Brazilian police announced Tuesday. The former boss of the Camorra crime syndicate had been on the run since the mid-1980s, and was convicted for more than 20 homicides by an Italian court.

The 56-year old Scotti was seized while driving his two teenage daughters to school, according to the AFP news agency.

Before his arrest, Scotti had been living in Recife for 28 years, under a name of Francisco de Castro Visconti. He used false identification, taxpayer and voter registration documents, and apparently underwent several plastic surgery procedures, the police have said.

The fugitive has also married a Brazilian woman, and owned a real estate and a fireworks company.

The man told the police that not even his Brazilian family knew his true identity, and that he wanted to "forget his past; that Pasquale Scotti no longer existed. Only Francisco de Castro exists," according to the head of Interpol's Brazilian operation, Federal olice officer Valdecy Urquiza Junior.

The former mafia boss also said that he left Italy out of fear of being killed.

Escape from the hospital

Italian authorities managed to arrest Scotti, a known member of Naples mafia, after a shootout in 1983. Scotti has suffered several gunshot during the gun battle.

On Christmas Eve of 1984, he managed to escape the hospital where he was treated after signing a plea bargain. Despite a series of raids and road blocks, Italian police were not able to locate him.

"He left no traces. It's as if he vanished," Italian police were quoted as saying in a La Repubblica article from the time.

The Camorra chief was later convicted in absentia by an Italian court for illegal possession of firearms, extortion and dozens of murders.

Italy's most wanted

On Tuesday, Brazilian police said that Scotti was indentified by comparing archived fingerprints. The Italian authorities have started the process leading to his extradition, officials have said.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano praised the arrest as an "extraordinary" success, underling that Scotti was among the most sought and dangerous fugitives on Italy's most-wanted list.

dj/rc (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)

Argentine prosecutor found dead after linking alleged Iran plot to president

A prosecutor who accused the Argentinian president of a cover-up to avoid investigating Iranians suspected of a 1994 terrorist attack has been found shot dead. Alberto Nisman was due at a closed hearing on Monday.

Deutsche Welle, 19 Jan 2015

Special prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found shot dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment late on Sunday, authorities said.

Nisman, 51, was appointed 10 years ago by late Argentinian President Nestor Kirchner to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in the capital that killed 85 people.

Last week, Nisman accused current President Cristina Fernandez, Kirchner's widow, of back channel deals with Iran so as to avoid investigating the attack. A legal suit he filed accused Fernandez of working to absolve the Iranian officials accused of orchestrating the attack.

Nisman was due to testify on Monday in a closed-door hearing with Congress over his claim.

"The president and her foreign minister took the criminal decision to fabricate Iran's innocence to sate Argentina's commercial, political and geopolitical interests," Nisman said last week. He said the deal was meant to foster trade between the two countries - providing oil to Argentina in exchange for grain exports.

Alberto Nisman

Argentina and Iran agreed in 2013 to establish a "truth commission" that would create a legal report about those implicated in the 1994 attack, and then interview them in Tehran. The deal limited questioning to five suspects namedin Interpol alerts, including former Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi.

The attack remains unsolved.

Apartment door locked from the inside

Nisman's body was found after his security detail, unable to reach him by phone or at his front door, alerted his family. Nisman's mother called a locksmith after the door was found locked with a key inserted into the deadlock on the inside of the apartment.

"Alberto Nisman was found dead on Sunday night in his flat on the 13th floor of the tower Le Parc, in the Buenos Aires district of Puerto Madero," the Argentine Security Ministry said in a statement.

"Next to Nisman's body ... a 22-calibre handgun was found, together with a bullet casing."

An autopsy will be carried out in the coming days.

Israel's foreign ministry expressed "deep sorrow" over Nisman's death.

jr/bw (Reuters, AP, dpa)

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Service door to Argentinian prosecutor’s home not fully locked

Fifa partner boss Ray Whelan surrenders in Brazil

BBC News, 14 July 2014

Ray Whelan, director of Match Hospitality, denies any wrongdoing

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The British boss of a Fifa partner firm being investigated over alleged illegal World Cup ticket sales has surrendered to a judge in Brazil.

Police had tried to arrest Ray Whelan four days ago but he was not at his exclusive Rio de Janeiro hotel.

Mr Whelan, director of Match Hospitality, denies any wrongdoing.

An international gang is suspected of acting at as many as four World Cups, earning about $90m (£52m) per tournament.

The gang is believed to have made money by acquiring and illegally selling on VIP tickets and hospitality packages.

Match held the rights to sell hospitality tickets for the World Cup.

'No fugitive'

Mr Whelan turned himself in to judge Rosita Maria de Oliveira Netto. He has been rearrested by police and is expected to be taken to a detention facility.

According to a spokesperson for Mr Whelan's lawyer, Fernando Fernandes, Mr Whelan said: "I can finally start my criminal defence."

Mr Whelan had left Rio's Copacabana Palace by the time police called
four days ago

Mr Whelan has been indicted with 11 other people.

He was briefly arrested on 7 July but was released after questioning.

Then last Thursday, police said they went to Mr Whelan's room in Rio's Copacabana Palace hotel but he was no longer there and they were told he had left an hour earlier.

In a statement, Match said Mr Whelan had simply left the hotel with Mr Fernandes before police arrived.

It said: "We do not believe that the term 'fugitive' is appropriate under the circumstances as he is presently with his lawyer."

Hundreds of tickets and large amounts of cash have been recovered during the police operation, which gathered evidence via phone taps.

Based in Zurich and in Cheadle, Cheshire, Match Hospitality describes itself as "the professional services company appointed by Fifa to provide ticketing, accommodation and event information technology services to Fifa".

Its packages for games at Brazil 2014 ranged from $700 (£410) up to more than $100,000.

Of some roughly 3 million tickets available at the 2014 event, it was given about 450,000 to sell to hospitality clients.

Related Article:

World Cup tickets official arrested over illegal sales

30 tons of drugs seized by Interpol in Caribbean, Central America

Deutsche Welle, 3 July 2013

The international police agency Interpol has seized a 30-ton cache of cocaine, heroin and marijuana valued at $822 million (631 million euros). The operation took place in the Caribbean and Central America.

The Interpol-led "Operation Lionfish" targeted maritime drug and gun smugglers across two separate regions. It involved some 34 countries and territories, including 20 Caribbean nations.

Police arrested 142 people and seized 15 vessels, 42 firearms and approximately $170,000 in cash. The European police agency Europol supported the operation and said coordination units were based at Interpol's bureau in El Salvador and the command center of the French West Indies Coast Guard on the island of Martinique. Raids took place between May 27 and June 14.

"The operation was coordinated in response to growing evidence of the organized crime in the trafficking of drugs and firearms in the Central America and Caribbean regions due to its strategic location," Europol said in a press release Tuesday.

As well as the Caribbean and Central American countries, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States participated in the anti-smuggling operation. The World Customs Organization and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also leant their support.

"Disrupting this activity is not only critical for the source and transit countries of these drugs and weapons, but also for the destination countries such as Canada," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said in a statement from Ottowa.

South American cocaine is typically smuggled to Europe in by sea in shipping containers, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes. The drug is often trafficked to North America from Colombia through Central America or Mexico by sea and then land.

dr/hc (AP, dpa, AFP)

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International raid targets illegal timber trade

BBC News, 19 February 2013

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Brazil has an environmental police
 force tasked with cracking down
on illegal logging

Interpol has announced that it arrested nearly 200 people in a wide-ranging international operation against illegal logging and the trafficking of timber.

The three-month effort spanned 12 Central and South American countries, and $8m (£5.2m) worth of timber was seized.

Interpol says the illegal logging trade could be worth up to $100bn world-wide.

It has also been linked to a rise in murders and corruption, as criminal groups move into remote forest areas.

Interpol said officials had checked lorries, ships and containers, as well as retailers and individuals, seizing a total of 50,000 cubic metres, or about 2,000 lorry-loads, of illicit timber.

More than 100 people remain under investigation.

Murderous trade

The head of Interpol's environmental crime programme, David Higgins, said the raid, dubbed "Operation Lead", was just the first step in the organisation's fight against the illegal timber trade.

He said the international nature of the trade made prosecutions difficult, but that in the long term Interpol would try to help countries apply the law in a more uniform manner.

Mr Higgins said co-operation between forestry officials, customs and border agents and the police would be crucial to fight the timber trafficking.

Over the past years, dozens of anti-logging activists have been killed in Brazil in attacks believed to be linked to their activism.

In Colombia, police say illegal and rebel groups are increasingly turning to illegal logging as a source of revenue.

And in Venezuela, there have been clashes between indigenous groups and loggers who have invaded their land.