The US has already charged individuals with bribery charges. Legally could this come under the RICO laws? If they can show that a country HAS to use bribery to win then would that make FIFA as a whole a “continuing criminal enterprise” ?
Could they also tack on some kind of charge of profiting from human trafficking in relation to the money FIFA makes from sale of the broadcast rights to the Qatar 2022 World Cup? Recently there was an article claiming FIFA knew that Qatar could never construct the stadiums without use of forced labour.
Any one here know if RICO could be applicable here?
ok it looks like they are using RICO to charge the 14 individuals. However I thought the point of RICO was that the organisation as a whole can be charged and assets seized. Why in this case are they charging only some individuals and not going after the entire organisation?
That’s the opposite of my understanding. The point of RICO is to take the actions of an organization and use them to charge the leaders of that organization, even if those individuals didn’t directly commit the crimes they ordered the organization to commit.
“As for FIFA, it’s not the mafia, says Fischetti, and for the moment the organization itself is not implicated. But this isn’t the end of this investigation. “There will be other indictments, there’s no question about that. I think you’ll be seeing other indictments coming on in the next few months,” Fischetti says.”
Also mentions several people are cooperating, no doubt they are seeing how far up the ladder they can go, poor old Sepp must be getting nervous. Slavery is explicitly mentioned in the RICO statutes. I’d really love to see a US court rule on whether Qatar’s Kafala system meets the legal definition of Slavery.
Question: If after the case concludes FIFA was found to have been a corrupt organisation are US companies banned from doing business with them? Whats the worst possible penalty that could happen to FIFA as a whole if they end up nailing Sepp Blatter?
My understanding is that they are using the fiction that there is a corrupt organization inside of FIFA instead of FIFA themselves being corrupt. That way they can don’t have to try and take down the entire organization (at least, not right away). At least, that’s what I got from this Slate article.
This takes us outside the realm of speculation, and into the ridiculous. FIFA is not liable and its officers are not culpable for Qatari building methods. FIFA neither explicitly nor by implication tells anyone to enslave some South Asians to build their stadia. In any case, US anti-trafficking statutes have no extraterritorial application except to US citizens.
Nope, read the RICO statutes, if you profit off slavery overseas and the money has anything to do with the US then you could be charged. In this case FIFA has already sold the US broadcast rights to Qatar 2022 so they’ve made money in the US off it. Also read the article above showing that FIFA knew there was no way that the stadiums could be completed without forced labour.
