# could FIFA be charged under RICO?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 1, 2015, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324 "2015-06-01T10:12:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2015, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/1 "2015-06-01T10:12:29Z")
The FIFA scandal keeps growing and growing:
> **[Fifa crisis: South Africa 'admits $10m football payout'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32952078)**
>
> South Africa did pay $10m to a football body led by Jack Warner, one of the figures at the centre of Fifa corruption allegations, local media say.
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.
> **[FIFA’s Impossible, Corrupt Qatar Math: How FIFA Had to Have Known Forced...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/fifas-impossible-corrupt-qatar-math-how-fifa-had-to-have-known-forced-labor-was-needed-for-2022s-qatari-world-cup)**
>
> How did Qatar ever win the right to host the 2022 World Cup? Even by FIFA’s own math, corruption is the only answer.
Any one here know if RICO could be applicable here?
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2015, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/2 "2015-06-01T10:23:01Z")
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?
> **[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act | FIFA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act#FIFA)**
>
> Fourteen defendants affiliated with FIFA were indicted under the RICO act on 47 counts for "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants' participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer". The defendants include many current and former high-ranking officers of FIFA and its affiliate CONCACAF. The defendants had allegedly used the enterprise as a front to collect millions of ...
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/3 "2015-06-01T11:16:12Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> 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.
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.
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/4 "2015-06-02T02:13:37Z")
Some more details:
> **[What do FIFA and the mafia have in common? RICO](https://theworld.org/stories/2015-05-29/what-do-fifa-and-mafia-have-common-rico)**
>
> Top officials with global soccer organization FIFA were arrested this week based on charges from US prosecutors using a 1970s law written to prosecute the mafia including figures, like crime boss John Gotti.
“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?
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2015, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/5 "2015-06-02T10:29:10Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> 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?
>
> [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act#FIFA)
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](http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140521/edenwald/substitute-teacher-fired-for-asking-4th-graders-for-dating-advice).
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2015, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/6 "2015-06-02T10:52:27Z")
I think you may have linked the wrong article 😃
“Substitute Teacher Fired for Asking 4th Graders for Dating Advice”
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/7 "2015-06-03T02:44:02Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> 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.
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.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2015, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/8 "2015-06-03T07:17:42Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> I think you may have linked the wrong article 😃
> “Substitute Teacher Fired for Asking 4th Graders for Dating Advice”
Indeed. That was a link I was sharing with a live stream that talks about WTF stories. The other link must not have copied, and I didn’t notice.
> **[The Brilliant Legal Strategy Behind the FIFA Bust](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/05/fifa-bust-legal-strategy-the-department-of-justice-is-using-rico-to-save-soccer.html)**
>
> The stunning arrests of FIFA’s top brass at a glitzy Swiss hotel at dawn on Wednesday were widely heralded as a move against the international soccer...
That said, since the president is part of the investigation, I’m not sure this is correct.
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2015, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-fifa-be-charged-under-rico/721324/9 "2015-06-03T07:28:19Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> 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.