May 3 – Sepp Blatter has not spoken in person to United States prosecutors in his native Switzerland despite his previous assertions to the contrary.
Blatter told international news agencies last month that he had met U.S. Department of Justice officials in Zurich last October or November and that he was not suspected of any wrongdoing in the biggest bribery and corruption case ever to hit world football’s governing body.
But his U.S.-based lawyer Richard Cullen has told Reuters this is incorrect and that Blatter may have mistaken American lawyers who were conducting an internal investigation on behalf of FIFA for officials from the Department of Justice. In March, FIFA completed its own 22-month internal inquiry into allegations of corruption, conducted by US law firm Quinn Emanuel who handed over their findings to Swiss authorities
“Prosecutors from the Department of Justice did not interview Mr Blatter in Switzerland,” Cullen said. “He may have mistaken an interview that he gave to American lawyers who were conducting an investigation on behalf of FIFA. Those lawyers were in fact not prosecutors from the Department of Justice.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714188679labto1714188679ofdlr1714188679owedi1714188679sni@w1714188679ahsra1714188679w.wer1714188679dna1714188679