May 27 2016
Details are slowly emerging that as many as 16 bank accounts were held by FIFA officials at Swiss private bank Julius Baer, with at least four of them held by officials indicted by the US Department of Justice in its investigation into FIFA corruption and money laundering.
The news, reported in leading Swiss financial journal Insideparadeplatz.com, indicates that Julius Baer was far more involved in the scandal than it has been willing to admit to date, despite the arrest of one of its former senior officials, Argentine Jorge Arzuaga.
Initially the bank had said that perhaps four of its clients had been linked to the FIFA scandal, but in fact the bank has referred at least 16 accounts linked to FIFA officials to the Swiss Money Laundering Reporting Office in Bern. The referrals were made by Julius Baer after US and Swiss prosecutors had begun their hunt for corrupt officials and sports marketers linked to FIFA.