Panama Papers: Uefa raided by Swiss police over leaked contracts connecting them to bribery scandal
Contracts between the European football body and Hugo Jinkis have emerged as part of the Panama Papers leak
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Swiss police have raided Uefa's headquarters to collect evidence about a Champions League TV contract leaked in the Panama Papers.
The European football regulator has come under scruntiny after it emerged it had signed contracts selling the South American broadcasting rights for the Champions League and other tournaments to a company owned by Hugo Jinkis - one of 16 men indicted by the FBI last year over Fifa World Cup bribery allegations.
Between 2003 and 2006, a series of contracts were co-signed by the then director of legal services, Gianni Infantino, now president of Fifa after the disgraced Sepp Blatter was forced to resign.
The Swiss Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said the raid was part of criminal proceedings directed against persons unknown.
"On April 6, 2016, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, within the scope of ongoing criminal proceedings, conducted a search on a co-operative basis for the collection of evidence at the headquarters of the UEFA and at another enterprise," it said in a statement.
"The search was motivated by the suspicion of criminal mismanagement and ... misappropriation. The OAG's criminal proceedings are in connection with the acquisition of television rights and are at present directed against persons unknown, meaning that for the time being, no specific individual is being targeted by these proceedings."
The contracts awarded the tournament's broadcast rights to a company called Cross Trading, a subsidiary of Mr Jinkis' company Full Play, which then sold the rights onto to Ecuadorian broadcaster Teleamazonas.
The documents came to light after they were included in the cache of 11.5m documents from the records of Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which were leaked by an anonymous source. The files, which date back 40 years, revealed at least 12 current and former world leaders, 128 politicians, public officials, billionaires and celebrities are among those who have been involved in 214,000 offshore companies.
Mr Jinkis was indicted over allegations he gave bribes and kickbacks to senior Fifa executives in exchange for the marketing and media rights to the tournaments. Several high-ranking Fifa officials are facing charges over allegations they accepted bribes to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar.
Mr Infantino, who was elected to the head of the world football governing body Fifa just six weeks ago, said: "I am dismayed and will not accept that my integrity is being doubted by certain areas of the media."
He said he "never personally dealt with Cross Trading nor their owners" in a tender process conducted by an agency retained by Uefa.
He added: "Moreover, as media themselves report, there is no indication whatsoever for any wrongdoings from neither Uefa nor myself in this matter."
According to reports, Cross Trading paid $111,000 (£80,000) for the rights and sold them for a $200,000 (£140,000) profit to the TV channel. There was no suggestion bribes or kickbacks were paid at any stage of the deals.
"The rights were awarded to Teleamazonas/Cross Trading because they made the highest offer on the market," Uefa said in a separate statement before the raids.
It did acknowledge it gave inaccurate information last year when stating it had no commercial dealings with people and companies indicted in the US federal case.
Uefa said: "At the time of our initial response we had not had the opportunity to check each and every one of our (thousands) of commercial contracts and so the answer given was initially incomplete."
The governing body said it would fully co-operate with authorities if and when they are contacted about it.
Mr Jinkis and his son, Mariano, are fighting extradition from Argentina to the US.
Additional reporting by PA
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments