May 17 – Former FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi, who is under Swiss investigation for fraud and money laundering, has lost his appeal to keep his electronic communications and diary private from federal investigators.
Linsi was FIFA Secretary General from 2002 to 2007. The period for which the diary will be opened is for 2004 and 2005, the height of the pre-German 2006 World Cup preparations.
Linsi claimed that the entries in his diary referred to private conversations and telephone conversations with some of them being of a very private nature.
The case being built against Linsi follows an internal investigation by the German FA (DFB) in 2016 into the activities around the winning and hosting of the 2006 World Cup which found a number of financial irregularities.
Linsi, as Secretary General, is accused of having participated in the alleged repayment of an interest-free loan granted by the DFB,
A €6.7 million payment, made by the DFB to FIFA in 2005 was said by the German bid to be the return of a loan via FIFA from the late Adidas chief executive Robert Louis-Dreyfus. But investigators noted the DFB had earmarked the payment as a contribution to a World Cup gala which never took place. The money is suspected to have been used as a slush fund to buy votes for the German hosting bid.
The Swiss investigators accuse Linsi of being part of a conspiracy that led to unfair business dealings or fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
Raids at the end of November 2016, by federal investigators, were carried out at Linsi’s residential and commercial premises. Linzi requested that the seized material was sealed.
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