Original subtitles

- The importance of soccer internationally is kind of incomprehensible.

- The World Cup Tournament is the single largest sporting event in the world.

- Soccer is life.

- These individuals that are part of the FIFA organizations,

they are treated like royalty.

- In the beginning, the biggest piece was bribery

for World Cup votes.

- We looked at this case as an organized-crime case.

- You could look at the structure of FIFA,

almost like a traditional organized-crime family

with a boss, an underboss, capos, soldiers...

A pattern of fraud, bribery and kickbacks

that netted international soccr officials and

marketing executives $150 million over the last 24 years.

- If anyone overseas caught wind that the FBI was investigating

FIFA, the case would have finished before it started.

- Who leaked it? What if, a Swiss law enforcement

officer gets killed?

- This really is the world cup of fraud.

And today we're issuing FIFA a red card.

In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts, mob stings.

Terrorist takedowns.

We understand why people want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it. - Freeze!

- FBI!

- FBI! - Action!

But they don't know the half of it.

What really goes down?

We save that for each other,

when we're talking agent to agent.

This is FBI. True.

- So, what is FIFA?

- FIFA is the organization that oversees world soccer.

Mike Gaeta supervised the Eurasian organized-crime team

and headed the New York office's money laundering

investigations squad.

- Soccer is the largest sport in the world.

FIFA is the largest sport governing body in the world.

- Are they like the size of the United Nations?

- It's bigger than the United Nations.

John Penza is a 21-year veteran of the FBI.

John served as both an investigator and a supervisor

for the Eurasian and Italian organized-crime squads,

focusing on high-level financial crimes.

- FIFA's made up of six confederations that are

groups of regions of countries all over the world.

It is the body that is controlling the World Cup

and all the various tournaments that are held internationally.

- You're an FBI squad in New York.

How does FIFA come across your desk?

Kristy Kottis is a 24-year veteran of the FB.

she worked gangs, crimes against children

as well as human and drug trafficking.

- So in 2009, I was assigned to be the supervisor of

the Russian organized-crime squad, and I was given

the mandate to look internationally

for transnational organized-crime, to look for sophisticated

criminal activity that affected the United States.

So I was asked to fly to London to meet some people who wanted

to talk to us and provide us information about international criminal activity.

One of the things this person talks about

is FIFA and corruption at FIFA.

The information that we were told was that for years,

people were being bribed to vote for World Cup locations.

- Think about the Olympics.

It's bigger.

It's a huge, huge, huge event and a gigantic money-maker

for that country that gets that bid.

- There were also allegations of match fixing.

There were also allegations of bribery

for tickets for tournaments.

- Are certain countries mentioned?

People? What are they telling you?

- So this was 2009.

A shot at the goal.

And guess who's got it?

FIFA Club World Cup champions, Barcelona.

- One of the pieces of information we heard was

that Russia had been working to bribe

to obtain votes for the World Cup for 2018.

What we learned is that there was a group within FIFA

that was physically based in New York City.

And so if there was corruption and they were engaged,

then that corruption was happening here in New York City.

So it was really in our backyard.

- So you're overseas, you're getting this information.

You take that back to the United States.

Where do you begin? - I had significant experience

conducting organized-crime cases, RICO cases,

criminal enterprise matters.

We looked at it as a criminal enterprise case

and formulated it that way.

We had a target here in New York City named Chuck Blazer

who is one of the executives of CONCACAF, which was

one of the bodies that make up FIFA, the body that covers

North America and the Caribbean.

He was very influential in the business side of world soccer.

- If I look back 10 years, 20 years and see the progress

we've made, I'm very proud of our accomplishments.

- Chuck lived a very high life here in New York City.

He was out on the town.

Somewhat of a socialite.

- He had two apartments in Trump Tower.

He lived on one of the top floors.

- Two?

Two. One for him, and one for his cats.

- When you were over in London, what other names

were they throwing at you and have you seen them now

in your investigation?

- One of the other names was Chuck's partner at CONCACAF,

Jack Warner, who actually was the president of CONCACAF.

Jack was from Trinidad and Tobago.

Part of the importance of their positions and them

in particular, was that they were actually voting members

on the executive committee of FIFA.

- What does the executive committee do that makes that so important?

- One of the more important things they do is vote

for where the World Cup is going to be held, incredibly big.

- That's huge. - Yeah.

And you've got heads of state meeting with

the executive committees of FIFA lobbying

to have the vote for them.

They want the World Cup in their country.

- These individuals that are part of the FIFA organization,

specifically the ExCo members, they are treated like royalty.

The way they traveled, first class everywhere,

the best restaurants.

Just unbelievable, the money and power these folks have.

Looking for Fàbregas. No, it's Iniesta.

This is it! That's the goal!

Spain are the kings of world football.

- So at this point in the investigation,

has the ExCo had a vote on who's going to get the next World Cup?

- When we initiated the investigation, we knew that

in a couple of months there was going to be a vote

for the World Cup for 2018 and 2022.

Part of the information we had obtained was that Russia

was going to corruptly influence the vote.

- It is indeed a great day today, here in Zurich.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup, ladies and gentlemen,

will be organized in Russia.

At that point, we realize, this is the big break.

We couldn't believe it.

- Let us make history together.

- This is not a small thing.

Heads of state are involved.

One of the things we learned was that corruption in FIFA

had been in the media for years, overseas.

But in the States we didn't see it.

Good morning, welcome to Zurich.

How much profit did you make selling World Cup tickets this year?

Do you know which football officials took bribes?

- I don't answer these questions.

- Reporting on corruption and saying

something is corrupt is one thing.

Right.

- Proving it in a court of law, particularly

in the United States, is a completely different story.

A prayer, I suspect from Kumagii.

And the World Cup for Japan!

They have rewritten the history books.

Shortly after the announcement that the vote for 2018

went to Russia, we bring IRS on to join in on the case.

And so the idea was let's look from a tax perspective

at Chuck in particular.

The information that came back was Chuck hadn't paid taxes

for almost 20 years.

- And when you say hasn't paid taxes in 20 years,

we're not talking about like he made $10,000 a year

and he just didn't file--

- Well, we didn't know how much money because

he didn't report it. - Right.

- However, working at the highest levels of FIFA,

living the lifestyle that he did in Trump Tower in New York City,

traveling the world, we knew he's got money

and he's living it up, not reporting any of it.

That is leverage that you can now utilize

to obtain his cooperation.

- Based on the tax information, and potentially

he could be ripe for the flip.

- Right.

Approaching an individual to try and get them

to cooperate, you have to be very strategic about it

if you're doing a criminal enterprise case.

- Absolutely - Because it's not about Chuck.

- No.

- The case is about a much bigger picture.

If the approach with Chuck fails, then everybody will know

what we're trying to do because he'll tell everybody.

- Yeah. - You have to plan out

how to do so in a way that is the least public way possible.

And you do that just old school surveillance,

trying to figure out his routine.

And the idea was to wait near Trump Tower.

Odds are he's coming out and going to dinner.

He was always out eating dinner.

They approach him and said: "We need to speak with you.

You have some issues that you need to explain."

He was taken aback at first.

But he's also a very cool character.

He composed himself quickly and said:

"Look, I know, I want to help.

I'll call you and we'll set something up."

- Now you've got the target saying: "Yeah, I'll work with you".

- Well, he says: "I'll meet with you."

- I got excited. - Getting to the point where

he'll work with us... - Yeah.

-...takes a little bit.

And so ultimately there's a meeting in 26 Fed.

At that meeting, he's presented with what we know,

which is the fact that he hadn't paid taxes for years.

He's also presented with options.

He can A, try to address his tax situation by proactively helping the government.

Or he can sit back and wait for the government to charge him

criminally and then go to prison.

- That's B. - Right.

- And he chooses? - He chose A.

- So, when he leaves that door and he walks out,

there's got to be a little trepidation like:

"I hope he shuts his mouth". - Yeah. Everytime.

You know, because if he tells his girlfriend, his ex-wife,

Jack Warner. Game over for the investigation.

They are going to have one evening to celebrae

here which will last long into the night.

- So now that we've got Chuck to flip,

what are the goals in this case?

- This is an organized-crime case,

and organized crime-cases are made with cooperators.

So you have to develop cooperators like Chuck.

But to get to the hierarchy, the top targets of the group,

you have to get step by step cooperation.

Because you're not going to find it on paper.

- So what does that look like?

- First, we're meeting with Chuck, with the, with the U.S.

attorney's offices, and he is proffering.

He is telling us some of his bad deeds and folks

that he's engaged in criminal activity with.

Then the next logical step for us as investigators

is to get him talking to those bad guys,

to get those conversations on tape.

And that's exactly what we did.

- So where does that lead us?

- We have a number of months where he's actively wiring up

against various people.

- Here in the United States, or...

- Here in the US and overseas.

- Oh, he goes overseas, too. - He went overseas and

we had him at the Olympics in London in 2012.

Developing information against the targets of the case.

- Now Chuck is telling us about other people.

Are some of the people that he mentions,

do we know who they are and have we seen them

in our investigation?

They were other members of the ExCo.

Sepp Blatter, who was the top of the hierarchy.

The head of FIFA.

- I have been elected by 133 national associations,

but I am the president of everybody.

- And so they were high-profile people, but there were also

people we never knew about in various aspects

of this corruption, over the years.

We're talking 20 years of activity that we learned from Chuck.

- What are some of the people that you get from him

that are pretty big cheeses?

- An individual named José Hawilla.

He lived in Brazil. Very big player in the sports

marketing scene in South America.

He had significant contact with other ExCo

members from South America.

- What's his job in South America?

- He had a couple of companies that negotiated for

television rights and for the various tournaments

that FIFA would hold in South America.

He would obtain those rights and then he would

resell those rights.

Neymar! Wow!

There's no stopping that.

- What information do we get about that individual?

- In regard to what Chuck knew and talked about,

it was a bribe that had been covered up.

Knowing that Hawilla was currently involved in the mix

with ExCo members down in Florida, big players,

longtime players within FIFA, we thought we could turn that into something.

But at the same time, we're also recognizing that,

you know, look, if we don't get Hawilla,

this case may not go further.

It's kind of a make or break situation.

So the U.S. Attorney's office prepares the complaint,

and we get a warrant for his arrest.

We learned a couple days in advance

he was coming into Miami.

We had a team down in Miami and they arrested him

when he came off the plane.

- Was he shocked?

- Extremely.

- He's obviously a Portuguese speaker and Spanish

and English is like his third language.

So we're trying to convey to him how serious of a position

he's in and that he needs to fully cooperate or else

he will never go back to Brazil again.

- So when you guys target José, you guys are having

like a come to Jesus moment.

And what happens after that?

- He starts making the recordings he needs to make.

Mario Goötze for Germany!

112 minutes!

They find the way!

- From him, how many other subjects now are we developing?

- 17, 18, 19.

- Wow. - And keep in mind, his base

of operations is Brazil.

That's CONMEBOL territory, another federation

similar to CONCACAF.

All those countries in South America, Hawilla has access to.

So literally the floodgates opened when he came in.

- Now all of a sudden you're probably getting a firehose

of information and evidence.

- Yeah, and you're triaging those folks. - Yeah.

- Who makes the most sense? Are they US-based?

Can we put our hands on them?

Are they from non-extraditing countries?

- So was a lot of it based on information that Chuck had gotten you?

- Chuck, Hawilla and other cooperators.

And we were able to, in collaboration with the IRS

and the U.S. Attorney's Office, build a RICO indictment

against initially 14 individuals.

- Wow.

John Smith forward. Bryan is there as wel.

What is down for the United States?

The United States of America are the 2015 World Cup winners.

- We found out there was going to be a FIFA ExCo meeting in Zurich.

It was going to be about a week at an exclusive hotel.

- All the players that we want to arrest are in one location.

- These were folks that we hoped would travel to Zurich for the meeting.

Again, we hoped.

The arrests were going to be at 0600, 6 a.m.

Swiss time, which was going to be midnight our time.

A quarter after 11, 11:30, IRS, the FIFA FBI team and

the Department of Justice from Eastern District,

we all assembled in the command post in 26 Federal Plaza.

We had a live feed to Hoover.

We had direct comms with Zurich.

And we had different news channels on

and waited for the arrests to start.

- The excitement must be palpable.

- The adrenaline is pumping.

What's going to happen?

Is everybody there?

Who's not there?

Shortly before midnight, again, we had all these

news channels on, there's like some kind of CNN banner

about an arrest in Zurich.

- Wait... OK. Time out. You're sitting in the op center

and then a banner comes up that says

there's going to be arrests in Zurich.

Were you like, it's over?

- I looked at the lead AUSA, Evan Norris,

and I'm like: "what the fuck?"

Who leaked it?

- Right. - What if, God forbid,

a Swiss law enforcement officer gets hurt or God forbid, killed?

- Right. - Who would do this?

But from the timing of it, we did not collectively

have enough time to start pointing fingers.

And we just had to say, you know what?

It's there. It's out there. I can't control it any longer.

Let the Swiss go and make the arrests

and let the chips fall where they may.

Fortunately the Swiss just, they started going after

these guys at 6 a.m. in Zurich time.

We start hearing: "so and so is in custody.

So and so is in custody.

So and so is in custody." And then, you're relieved.

- I was stationed in Rome on that day, by 7:00 my phone

was blowing up from all my Italian law enforcement

contacts who were seeing the news,

who were all soccer fans. They loved it.

They couldn't believe it.

In an early morning police raid,

Swiss authorities were seen escorting several senior FIFA

officials from Zurich's luxury Baur au Lac hotel.

Seven men at the hotel were arrested,

including FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb.

Eight others have been indicte.

- The 47-count indictment against these individuals

includes charges of racketeering, wire fraud

and money laundering conspiracies spanning two decades.

These individuals, through these organizations, engaged

in bribery to decide who would televise games,

where the games would be held, and who would run

the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide.

- I have never taken a bribe from FIFA or anybody else.

- The fact that you have international businessmen

who are abusing the system and basically

making the rules for themselves.

They're using the US financial system to do it.

And for me, that indictment and those arrests and the pictures

of them being arrested coming out of the hotel

with a sheet covering them because they should

be embarrassed, sends a message to others like them

all over the world that you can't do everything you want

and there are going to be consequences.

- You took something that was

Snow White clean and made it dirty.

You took a sport that five, six, seven-year-old kids play.

And you just made it a dirty business.

- Yeah. - And I think to me personally,

that's infuriating.

Subtitling: difuze