US, Swiss federal prosecutors to give update on FIFA cases

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch as she announces an indictment against nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption at a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Federal prosecutors leading investigations of corruption in international football are to hold a joint news conference in FIFA's home city. On Sept. 14 in Zurich, U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch and her counterpart from Switzerland, Michael Lauber, will give updates on their cases, Lauber's office said Tuesday Sept. 1, 2015.

On Sept. 14 in Zurich, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will join her counterpart from Switzerland, Michael Lauber, for a news conference about their separate investigations of corruption in world football.

The joint conference will explain the "status of the two criminal proceedings," Swiss officials said in a statement on Tuesday. Though the cases are separate, the officials involved are cooperating in their investigations.
Lynch, who helped kick off the FIFA case several years ago as a U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, is scheduled to attend an annual conference of federal prosecutors which is hosted this year by Lauber's department.
Across town, Blatter is working through the last months of his 18-year presidential spell after citing pressure on FIFA from the criminal cases as a reason to go early. Before deciding on June 2 to leave office, Blatter criticized Lynch — who was sworn into office in April — for conducting her case in Zurich.
"Listen, with all the respect to the judicial system of the U.S. with a new minister of justice," Blatter said in May, "the Americans, if they have a financial crime that regards American citizens then they must arrest these people there and not in Zurich when we have a congress."
The American case alleges bribery, fraud, money laundering and racketeering, including in the award of hosting rights for the 2010 World Cup to South Africa and broadcasting rights for World Cup qualifying matches and other international competitions.
FIFA was rocked on May 27 when Swiss federal police arrested seven officials, including FIFA's vice presidents for the North and South American regions, in a dawn raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich at the request of U.S. authorities.
They were among 14 football and marketing officials named in a 47-count U.S. indictment unsealed that day. Former FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, a Cayman Islands banker, accepted extradition to the U.S. and six others remain in Zurich-area prisons fighting the process.
Four more men — including Chuck Blazer, the most senior American in world football for 16 years until 2013 — had their guilty pleas unsealed on May 27. "They corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and enrich themselves," Lynch said at a news conference in New York hours after the arrests.