The FBI has arrested multiple FIFA officials on corruption charges over the past few days, and after Sepp Blatter was re-elected president today, the indictments are not over, according to The New York Times.
Richard Weber, the chief of the I.R.S. unit in charge of criminal investigations, spoke to America’s premier newspaper about the ongoing investigation and revealed how its process has unfolded.
Originally, it was Chuck Blazer, a former member of the FIFA Executive Committee, who came forward and acted as an informant for law enforcement, following accusations against him for tax evasion. In 2012, he recorded FIFA officials, says the NYT report, and one year later, he “secretly” pled guilty to corruption charges.
“The case starts off as a tax case against Blazer, but our involvement isn’t just on the tax aspect,” Weber said. “Once we get involved in an international corruption case like this one, we use our financial expertise to follow the money.”
[FOLLOW: All of the latest #FIFAarrests news]
Both the I.R.S. and FBI joined together to spearhead this investigation, an extremely interwoven and complicated one.
Weber notes that the building of this case, occurring as a chain reaction–one piece of evidence precipitating another–continues to produce more suspects.
“I’m fairly confident that we will have another round of indictments…We strongly believe there are other people and entities involved in criminal acts.”
“I don’t think there was ever a decision or a declaration that we would go after soccer. We were going after corruption….One thing led to another, led to another and another.”
As the action of traveling around the world to arrest the accused seemed far-fetched, striking in Switzerland during a FIFA gathering was fairly plausible when enough information was gathered to execute the move.
That incident already happened. But the real question is: Will Sepp Blatter’s name be called next?
Weber declined to comment specifics.
