FIFA lawyers said that former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and two other senior officials "awarded themselves pay rises and bonuses" which cost the organization more than £55M over the course of five years, according to Mark Critchley of the London INDEPENDENT.
Details regarding contracts of Blatter, sacked Secretary General Jérôme Valcke and fired Deputy Secretary General Markus Kattner were revealed by FIFA "as part of the ongoing investigation into corruption at the organisation." The former president received £23.3M between '11 and '15, "the last five years of his regime." Valcke, his right-hand man, received £22.9M and Kattner £9.5M.
A partner from Quinn Emanuel, the attorneys conducting the investigation, said, “The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives, totaling more than 79 million Swiss francs -- in just the last five years" (INDEPENDENT, 5/3).
CONTRACT EXTENSIONS: In London, Murad Ahmed wrote the probe found that in April '11, weeks before Blatter faced a presidential election, Valcke and Kattner "were given 8½-year contract extensions until 2019, with large increases in base salaries and bonuses." The contracts "guaranteed generous severance packages" -- up to 17.5M Swiss francs for Valcke and up to 9.8M Swiss francs for Kattner -- should they be dismissed, as was possible if Blatter "were not re-elected." Two new clauses were also inserted into the contracts for Valcke and Kattner, including guarantees of the full value of their contracts even if they were terminated for "just cause," and an indemnity clause that would force FIFA to pay its legal fees and fines even if they were found guilty of wrongdoing. FIFA said that these provisions "appear to violate mandatory Swiss law" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 6/3).
PERSONAL ENRICHMENT: Also in London, Martyn Ziegler wrote the sums "are far in excess of the basic salaries earned by the trio," the three top execs at FIFA during the last nine years of Blatter’s 18 years in office. The details of the payments "have been passed to the Swiss and United States legal authorities who are already conducting criminal investigations into Blatter and Valcke." A spokesperson for Blatter said that "he did not wish to comment on the allegations." FIFA said in a statement that until '13 the people who signed the contracts were "in principle" also the ones who approved them. FIFA "insisted the timing of the report was not designed to draw attention away from leaked emails which showed Gianni Infantino, the new president, ordered a recording of a highly-sensitive meeting of the organisation’s ruling council to be deleted" (LONDON TIMES, 6/3). REUTERS' Brian Homewood reported Blatter's U.S. lawyer, Richard Cullen, said in a statement, "We look forward to showing FIFA that Mr. Blatter's compensation payments were proper, fair and in line with the heads of major professional sports leagues around the world."
A person close to Kattner said that "none of the information that was published is unknown to the compensation committee." He said that payments "were in line with FIFA's compensation policy and that they had been seen by KPMG which audit FIFA's finances." Valcke "could not immediately be reached for comment." The report was released around one hour after the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland announced that it had searched FIFA HQ on Thursday "with the aim of confirming existing findings and obtaining further information."
The OAG, which seized documents and electronic data, said that "the investigation concerned people named in previous statements and unknown suspects in the corruption probe that has engulfed FIFA over the past year" (REUTERS, 6/3).
