{"id":1401,"date":"2020-08-05T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2020-09-14T19:07:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T23:07:24","slug":"swiss-special-prosecutor-announces-criminal-proceedings-against-fifa-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/05\/swiss-special-prosecutor-announces-criminal-proceedings-against-fifa-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Special Prosecutor Announces Criminal Proceedings Against FIFA Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 30, 2020, a Swiss special prosecutor initiated<\/a> criminal proceedings against Gianni Infantino for alleged collusion with Michael Lauber, the attorney general of Switzerland who was overseeing the investigation into FIFA.<\/p>\n

Infantino is the successor to Sep Blatter, who resigned in 2016 after revelations of corruption at FIFA caused a global media storm for soccer\u2019s global governing body.<\/p>\n

The special prosecutor who announced the investigation, Stefan Keller, described<\/a> the meetings between Infantino and Lauber as \u201cabuse of office,\u201d \u201cbreach of official secrecy,\u201d and \u201cassisting offenders.\u201d\u00a0 Keller is requesting the Swiss government lift Lauber’s immunity from criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n

Rinaldo Arnold, who is a regional prosecutor in Switzerland and a childhood friend of Infantino, set up<\/a> the meetings between the two men.\u00a0 Arnold is also under investigation, though he has not been charged.\u00a0 Lauber subsequently lied about those meetings. Emails concerning the meetings appeared on the platform \u201cFootball Leaks\u201d over a year ago, but both Infantino and Lauber claimed they were unable to remember what had taken place at the meetings.<\/p>\n

After the emails came to light, a supervisory body was convened<\/a> to look into Lauber\u2019s relationship with Infantino.\u00a0 The panel announced, \u201cLauber intentionally made a false statement\u2026 and knowingly concealed the third meeting with Infantino.\u201d\u00a0 The supervisory body cut Lauber\u2019s salary by 8 percent in March 2020 as\u00a0 punishment but restored it shortly after.<\/p>\n

Lauber later resigned from his position, after a federal court upheld<\/a> the accusations against him.<\/p>\n

Infantino responded<\/a> to the accusations against himself, saying, \u201cTo meet with the Attorney General of Switzerland is perfectly legitimate and it\u2019s perfectly legal. It\u2019s no violation of anything.\u00a0 On the contrary, it is also part of the fiduciary duties of the President of FIFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA has been embroiled in accusations of money laundering and corruption since 2015.\u00a0 Infantino, who ran unopposed in an internal election in 2016, has claimed that the organization no longer suffers from a culture of corruption.\u00a0 But high level officials in FIFA remain subject to investigations for various accusations of financial wrongdoing and corruption.\u00a0 The head of African soccer, Ahmad Ahmad, has been under investigation by French financial prosecutors for over a year.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the proceedings against Infantino suggest that authorities are responding more swiftly to problems at the organization than they did in 2014 when FIFA first complained about money laundering in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding campaigns. The organization will be under heightened scrutiny for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 30, 2020, a Swiss special prosecutor initiated criminal proceedings against Gianni Infantino for alleged collusion with Michael Lauber, the attorney general of Switzerland who was overseeing the investigation into FIFA. Infantino is the successor to Sep Blatter, who resigned in 2016 after revelations of corruption at FIFA caused a global media storm for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nSwiss Special Prosecutor Announces Criminal Proceedings Against FIFA Chief | IELR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/05\/swiss-special-prosecutor-announces-criminal-proceedings-against-fifa-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swiss Special Prosecutor Announces Criminal Proceedings Against FIFA Chief | IELR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On July 30, 2020, a Swiss special prosecutor initiated criminal proceedings against Gianni Infantino for alleged collusion with Michael Lauber, the attorney general of Switzerland who was overseeing the investigation into FIFA. 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