Independent Ethics Investigator Reportedly Billing FIFA $2.3M

Sources said that the independent investigator probing scandals at FIFA billed the body for 2.2M Swiss francs ($2.3M) in hourly fees for '14 and '15, according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. FIFA has "never disclosed how much it pays Swiss lawyer Cornel Borbely," who has headed the investigatory chamber of its ethics committee since '14. Since the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment in May '15 accusing dozens of football officials of corruption, several FIFA execs "have been investigated and sanctioned by Borbely’s committee." Declining to provide details of the exact amounts billed, a FIFA statement said, "The year 2015 was most likely the busiest for the ethics committee since its establishment." It added that "the costs of the judicial bodies will be publicly made available" when the '16 financial report is published next year. The amount Borbely billed in '15 is close to the 1.3M Swiss francs that FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura receives in salary (BLOOMBERG, 10/31).