Swiss bank Julius Baer has agreed to pay the US government $ 79 million to end an investigation into its role in a money laundering conspiracy linked to the FIFAgate scandal, the US Justice Department reported Thursday.
The financial institution admitted to Brooklyn federal judge Pamela Chen, in charge of the FIFA corruption scandal, that it conspired to launder $ 36 million in bribes paid to leaders of the world soccer governing body and other federations, the Department reported of Justice in a statement.
The scandal known as “FIFAgate” uncovered by the United States in May 2015, uncovered a plot of millionaire bribes paid by sports marketing companies to soccer leaders in the Americas in exchange for rights in television broadcasts and promotion of tournaments, including the Copa América and the Copa Libertadores.
In the case, which led to the downfall of FIFA chief Joseph Blatter, the US government has accused some 45 people and various sports companies of more than 90 crimes and of paying or accepting more than $ 200 million in bribes.
Julius Baer is one of the banks that Brooklyn prosecutors say laundered the bribe money.
A former Julius Bauer banker who worked at its Montevideo and Zurich subsidiaries, Argentine Jorge Luis Arzuaga, pleaded guilty in June 2017 to transferring more than $ 25 million in bribes to the former FIFA vice president and former head of the Football Association. Argentino (AFA) Julio Grondona, who died in 2014. He was sentenced to three years of probation last November.
“I understood and believed that this money was bribery money,” the former banker then admitted in Brooklyn court, acknowledging that the American banking system was used to send and receive bribes.
“Julius Baer Bank and its employees facilitated bribery and its compliance department turned a blind eye to patent red signs of money laundering,” said Acting Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mark Lesko.
The US courts agreed to end the litigation with Julius Bauer in exchange for the payment of a fine of 43.32 million dollars and 36.37 million dollars equivalent to the bribes that passed through his accounts, in the context of a settlement agreement. postponement of trial for three years.
The agreement “marks a new stage in Julius Baer’s continuous efforts to put an end to the regulatory and legal procedures still in progress, in cooperation with the authorities concerned,” the bank said in a statement only. AFP (HN)