U.S. Department of Justice vs. FIFA: Zurich in Flames, Indictments For All

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > U.S. Department of Justice vs. FIFA: Zurich in Flames, Indictments For All

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

farraday posted:

Just a quick note here, you are aware it is illegal to bribe people who are not government officials right?

It's also illegal to bribe government officials if other officials who weren't in on the deal, and likely won't be in the future, find out.

E: Also, there's generally a certain amount of style and subtlety involved. Be too blatantly corrupt and other powerful people who have no objections whatsoever to your graft might take you down just because you make them look bad.

Alkydere fucked around with this message at 03:38 on May 29, 2015

# ¿ May 29, 2015 03:36

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 10:37

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

SlipUp posted:

At this point if you are a FIFA official under indictment you should spill everything ASAP, these deals are in extremely limited quantity. HSBC already got the sweet deal for tipping off the DOJ and providing records. That's enough to indict these people and definitely have them see jail time. Historically, anyone who rolls at this point is looking at a 15 year sentence instead of 30 sorta thing.

Pretty much. When DoJ declared RICO on your rear end the point is to squeal fastest and loudest, that way you might actually see the light of day again. If you're not fast enough the DoJ will pat you on the head and lock you away just as long because you didn't bring anything new to the table.

I'm pretty sure FIFA's remaining execs are in denial. They've lived completely untouchable in a bubble for so long they literally cannot comprehend a force big and strong enough to take them down legally. Sure, a few might fall but that's the price of doing business, but nothing will touch Blatter or the majority of them besides maybe a slap on the wrist. They don't understand that the DoJ declaring RICO is a bit like the Romans declaring that the Carthaginians could use a bit more sodium in their diet.

# ¿ May 30, 2015 00:53

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32941740

So cute. :allears:

So, what are the odds that Blatter's in denial, or simply does not comprehend the reach and purpose of RICO cases and the DoJ?

# ¿ May 30, 2015 14:54

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32952426

"Daddy's not a criminal! He's just the victim of a conspiracy! He's not the one taking money! Qatar was given the World Cup entirely on its own merits!" :qq:

Seriously, this reeks of the Enron wife who started bawling about how they'd have to sell half of their mansions or whatever.

# ¿ May 31, 2015 18:44

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

etalian posted:

It's how the US DOJ broke the mob, you start out the bottom of the organization and slowly chew your way to the top.

Dolash posted:

I think the two decades of groundwork before this covers the "slowly" part, now it's mostly chewing.

Yeah, we're kinda past the "slowly". We're at the point where ~~Wile E. Coyote~~ Blatter is watching the flame race along the trail of gunpowder to the powder store. We're pretty much just wondering how long the dramatic rumblings before the actual fireworks start are going to last..

Northjayhawk posted:

Wait, I hadn't been following this thread, this is a RICO case? Holy poo poo. I'm not sure if FIFA even realizes how much trouble they are in.

I have a sneaking suspicion they really don't. They've lived in their own untouchable bubble of corruption for so long they literally can't comprehend what the DoJ's got in store for 'em.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 01:26

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Malloreon posted:

I vaguely recall someone saying that the DOJ can label FIFA a criminal organization, which will legally forbid any US company (advertiser) from doing any business with FIFA.

Two questions:
Is this possible?

If yes how likely is this to happen?

Yes.

~~Increasingly.~~

E: Okay, I wish it would happen but it's admittedly a rather delicate situation politically. They might do so after most or all of the big sponsors are given a chance to sever on their own. The less big American companies that have ties with FIFA, the more likely DoJ is likely to slap the label on them.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 04:05

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Posture Pal posted:

Jack Warner has released a video claiming, among other things, that FIFA influenced the 2010 Trinidadian elections. If that's actually the case, this rabbit hole's going to the center of the Earth.

Edit: More from The Guardian

Goddamn. I thought the show would be watching how many buckets Blatter could fill with his own fear sweat. But, no, Jack Warner's the man to watch in horrified fascination. First the whole "Oh, I'm feeling sick/severe exhaustion!" card to get out of jail and go party. Then displaying an inability to tell the difference between the norm of what happens in the organization he used to work in/control and an Onion article. And now this? :allears:

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 05:09

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Inferior Third Season posted:

The U.S. justice system, especially with RICO involved, gives zero fucks about an old person's health in their ability to stand trial or serve prison sentences.

The U.S. also gives zero fucks about rich foreigners. If anything, it gives negative fucks, because prosecuting them gives the appearance that the rich aren't above the law, while not actually having to go after the American rich.

This so very hard. RICO is the DoJ stating that rich old men will be tried as poor minorities. It also was pretty much an admission they were gunning from Blatter from the beginning, they just didn't have enough solid evidence on him. Meanwhile they did have solid evidence on the people they grabbed at first and could lean on them to make them squeal, which meant they could bring in more, lean on them, and so forth until they had a water-tight case against Blatter. It was hilarious watching Blatter take so long to figure out that he was hosed.

Meanwhile, could Warner be any more hilarious? He went from blatantly lying to get bail early to go party, i.e. totally a rich thing to do, to running around in panic. The best thing is he's making these "I'm gonna squeal" statements publicly instead of going to the FBI or anyone else prosecuting FIFA. As soon as any pressure was put on him he just started melting and I can't wait to see how far it goes.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 14:30

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Or he could be so out of touch with the world that he really thinks his underlings did try to rig elections, when in reality they just pocketed the funds like proper FIFA management and told their boss "Yeah, we totally rigged those like you asked" when the results came out.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 21:54

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Vladimir Putin posted:

I'm wondering if winning an Olympics is like a giant stimulus spending by the government. Except at the end of the Olympics you wind up with a bunch of poo poo you don't need while in traditional government stimulus plans you get a new road or something that your community actually needs.

Well, yes, except for a few differences. It would be like the government gave you the go-ahead on a stimulus project but only if the city in question did all the work and ponied up all the money. And it has to be a rich and vibrant city too, no poors for this "stimulus". Finally, in return for allowing this "stimulus" project to go through, the government demand all sorts of kickback, like having the city paint and set aside entire road lanes for the officials overseeing the "stimulus" (something the IOC actually demanded of...Sweden I think it was?)

So, it's not at all like a stimulus, and you still end up with the rotting, crumbling, unusable stadiums.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2015 20:28

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Space Gopher posted:

It's not quite Springtime for Hitler, but movies are a fantastic way to launder money. There are lots of people to pay, there's creative accounting even in successful productions, and nobody's going to think twice about millions of dollars vanishing into the Sepp Blatter biopic.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is one time the blatant laundering through the movie is noticed, if only because it all gets caught in the RICO net as yet another thing to throw at Blatter.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 00:36

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

DeathSandwich posted:

So is this Interpol signaling their intentions that they want to go to bat in extraditing/trying these guys?

I think this was basically set up so that FIFA could look like they were cleaning up their poo poo (and probably give a proper slap on the wrist to anyone who did something really dumb) without doing anything.

Only, too bad, Interpol's smelling all the blood in the water and realizes they don't have to or want to play nice anymore.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2015 19:44

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

EvanSchenck posted:

One thing I'm curious about is, could Fifa have continued to get away with this indefinitely if they'd been more intelligent about the countries they accepted bribes from? It seemed to me that from the moment they made the announcement, everybody was calling bullshit on the Qatar World Cup. It's just so obviously dumb and inappropriate, but I wonder if they could have just focused on extracting bribes from countries that at least made some degree of sense as hosts.

Well, probably but they would have had to go back like 20 years and start being more careful and intelligent way back when.

Remember, this investigation started over two decades ago.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2015 18:34

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Charlie Mopps posted:

Sepp Blatter may seek to stay as Fifa president, source tells Swiss paper

The Asian and African football unions have pleaded with Blatter to stay on as Fifa boss.

In response, The FIFA Audit and Complaince Chariman tells Blatter he really should gently caress off.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 17:00

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

A Winner is Jew posted:

DCFADP and Sepp Blatter gets indicted. Best week ever?

Don't forget Boehner resigning.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 17:29

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

OhYeah posted:

McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Visa demand Blatter to step down. Blatter through his lawyer: "I respectfully disagree". Those companies have give over 1,6 billion to FIFA between 2011 and 2014.
Source: Financial Times

Blatter is SO hosed.

Yeah, saw a piece in the WSJ this morning. Blatter's humming about how he's invincible and no one can touch him even though he's already in a Swiss cell and there's a RICO case aimed at him.

I wonder if a case can be made to remove him for medical reasons because the man is comically delusional.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2015 16:26

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

SlipUp posted:

How can you keep a straight face banning a dude from the sport for 8 years and leaving him the loving presidency of the organization.

Money and practice.

To an outsider (i.e. football-illiterate American that I am) it mostly sounds like they're just using all the noise to air some dirty laundry. The lower downs get to wag their fingers at Blatter while not actually taking any action, and Blatter gets to look like he's being punished without being actually punished.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2015 19:41

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 10:37

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Subjunctive posted:

There is a Tokyo Sexwhale on the forums, I believe.

Can we instead petition to change Fishmech's name to honor governor Butch Otter?

# ¿ Dec 23, 2015 05:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > U.S. Department of Justice vs. FIFA: Zurich in Flames, Indictments For All