*Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke could both
face arrest at some stage
*Valcke is identified as 'Co-Conspirator
No 17' in an updated US Department of Justice indictment document, according to
sources
*One source close to Blatter said that
until recently the FIFA president was not a 'target' of the US DoJ
*Valcke and Blatter have both been linked
to US$10m payment allegedly made to former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner
Mail on Sunday report continues:
The American criminal
investigation into FIFA corruption is closing in on Sepp Blatter's former
right-hand man, Jerome Valcke, who has been cited but not named in new case
paperwork, and it appears that Valcke and Blatter himself may face arrest at
some stage. Valcke
was FIFA's secretary general until September, when he was suspended amid
allegations of involvement in ticket touting. Sources have told The Mail on
Sunday he is identified as 'Co-Conspirator No 17' in an updated US Department
of Justice (DoJ) indictment document.
Another
suspect mentioned for the first time in recent days is 'Co-Conspirator No 14',
described only as 'a high-ranking official of FIFA'.
Valcke
has declined to comment over whether he is 'Co-Conspirator No 17'. Sources
close to Blatter will neither confirm nor deny if he is 'Co-Conspirator No 14'.
One said that until recently it was believed Blatter was not a 'target' of the
DoJ.
Anyone
eventually convicted of the fraud, money-laundering and racketeering charges
laid out by the DoJ faces a potential prison sentence in the USA.
Both
'Co-Conspirator No 17' and 'Co-Conspirator No 14' were allegedly involved in
the payment of a US$10m bribe by the South African government, via FIFA, for
votes in 2004 that helped South Africa become hosts of the 2010 World Cup.
The
DoJ allege the transfer of the US$10m, made in 2008 in three instalments, was
activated by Co-Conspirator No 17 and that the cash went to former FIFA
vice-president Jack Warner. Warner has been indicted in the case and the US
authorities have made an extradition request to his native Trinidad.
It
is alleged the cash was divided by Warner and two fellow FIFA executive
members, with another of those being America's Chuck Blazer, whose
whistle-blowing has helped to inform the DoJ case.
The
indictment also alleges that Blazer was told by Warner that 'high-ranking FIFA
officials, including Co-Conspirator No 14, the South African bid committee and
the South African government, were prepared to arrange for the government of
South Africa to pay US$10million'.
Valcke
has been linked to the movement of the US$10m, firstly when The Mail on Sunday
revealed in May this year that he would have needed to authorize the transfer.
Within hours of that report, a document leaked in South Africa confirmed that
Valcke had been directed to channel the US$10m to Warner.
Then
a leaked email sent by Valcke to the South African FA in December 2007
mentioned a 'transfer' (of money) as a result of talks between 'our president',
a clear reference to Blatter, and the president of South Africa at that time,
Thabo Mbeki.
In
a recent hitherto unpublished interview with former long-time FIFA insider
Jerome Champagne — now standing as a presidential candidate to replace Blatter
— Champagne told The Mail on Sunday he had been present when Mbeki and Blatter
discussed the US$10m funding scheme.
'Thabo
Mbeki himself, in a meeting which I attended [in November 2007 in South Africa]
announced that the South African government would develop a programme for the
other African federations and for the diaspora,' Champagne said. 'It's not Mr Blatter,
it's not me, it's not FIFA. It's Mr Thabo Mbeki, who was the president of the
republic of South Africa.
'This government asked the
South African FA to ask Valcke to pay US$10m to Jack Warner based on the pool of
money that FIFA contractually agreed to pay to the local organizing committee .
. . You have to ask Valcke how the money was transferred and did he know that
the account of Jack Warner [into which the US$10m was paid] was a personal
account.'
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