Argentine businessman Alejandro Burzaco, who has "been on the
run for two weeks" over the FIFA corruption scandal, handed himself in to
police in northern Italy, according to Jenny Booth of the LONDON TIMES. Burzaco, 50, who was until recently the president of sports
marketing company Torneos y Competencias, "was eating an early breakfast at the five-star Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich on May 27 when a team of FBI agents arrived to execute arrest warrants" on FIFA execs and business people -- including Burzaco himself. While the FBI officers "burst in on hotel rooms where those on their wanted list were sleeping," Burzaco waited unrecognized in the hotel restaurant until the U.S. detectives "had left with their quarry in handcuffs, before making his own discreet exit." Argentine media reported that Burzaco "had fled Europe and taken refuge in the city of Punta del Este in Uruguay, while Interpol issued a red notice asking for him to be intercepted." Tuesday morning, however, Burzaco "walked into a police station in Bolzano with his lawyer," and was reported to "be in a police cell pending a routine
procedural hearing at an Italian court" later on Tuesday to "decide whether to
confirm the arrest" (LONDON TIMES, 6/9). REUTERS' Cinelli, Jones, Bronstein & Ampuero reported Burzaco is "also being investigated by
Argentina's tax authority, AFIP, which suspects him of tax evasion."
That means extradition from Italy, "which is often slow and complicated, could be sought by both the United States and Argentina." Burzaco
gave "no explanation as to why he was in Bolzano." Local media reported he had
rented a house outside the city and "planned to request that he be given
house arrest." Burzaco was president of Torneos y Competencias when the U.S. issued its indictment (REUTERS, 6/9). In Buenos Aires, Nicolás Wiñazki reported Argentine businessmen Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, two of the men wanted in relation to the FIFA scandal, will reportedly "turn themselves into the authorities on Wednesday." The "detention of Burzaco reportedly precipitated the decision" by Hugo and his son to "face their judicial problems." They "do have one advantage with respect to Burzaco." Their legal advisers said that the men "are currently in Argentina, meaning they can request to be judged in this country." They know that "they will have to spend some time detained until the situation is addressed by Judge Claudio Bonadio" (CLARÍN, 6/9).
WARNER FACES MORE ACCUSATIONS: In London, Harriet Alexander reported former FIFA VP Jack Warner "has been accused of diverting aid from Haiti into his own bank accounts." Warner, 72, visited Haiti in '10 "in the aftermath of the earthquake" which killed more than 200,000 people. Warner was given a $750,000 sum from FIFA and the South Korean FA to "help rebuild the country after the disaster." Warner said after his visit, "I left those guys with a sense of hope. I left a country with a sense of hope." Yet documents obtained by the BBC show that Warner "asked for the money to be paid into his own private bank account." The money was labeled "personal use." The BBC said that the money "has not been accounted for" (TELEGRAPH, 6/9). In London, Claire Phipps reported in '12, the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation claimed that funds donated for Haiti "were paid into a bank account controlled by Warner." It said that the money from FIFA ($250,000) and the South Korean FA ($500,000) was paid into a TTFF account it claimed only Warner -- "a special adviser to the federation -- controlled." At the time, Warner said that the allegations were a conspiracy. Warner: "I have nothing to answer to anybody. Who wants to make allegations, make allegations" (GUARDIAN, 6/9).
