Hours after two high-ranking FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich by Swiss officials, the U.S. Justice Department has charged 16 more.
Of the 16 men indicted on for racketeering conspiracy and corruption charges were five current and former members of the international soccer league’s ruling executive committee.
“The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out. You will not escape our focus,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement Thursday about the 92-count indictment.
Those named in the unsealed indictment are: Alfredo Hawit; Ariel Alvarado; Rafael Callejas; Brayan Jimenez; Rafael Salguero; Hector Trujillo; Reynaldo Vasquez; Juan Angel Napout; Manuel Burga; Carlos Chavez; Luis Chiriboga; Marco Polo del Nero; Eduardo Deluca; Jose Luis Meiszner; Romer Osuna; and Ricardo Teixeira.
Callejas is the former president of Honduras. Hawit the current president of CONCACAF, the regional confederation that includes North and Central America and the Caribbean, while Napout is the president of CONMEBOL, the South American confederation.
Teixeira is the former president of the Brazil soccer federation, while del Nero is its current president.
Speaking from a news conference Thursday afternoon, Lynch described evidence of corruption found by federal officials.
“Consistent with the intergenerational nature of the corruption schemes, they involve payments relating to tournaments that have already been played, as well as matches scheduled into the next decade,” she said. “The defendant Hector Trujillo currently serves as a judge on the Constitutional Court of Guatemala, purportedly dispensing justice by day while allegedly soliciting bribes and selling his influence within FIFA.”
FIFA said in a statement that it will cooperate with the probes by the U.S. and Swiss officials.
