The “Black Box” team analyzed the agreements between the United States Department of Justice and the banks involved in the case called FIFAgate. The agreements allowed these financial entities to access benefits of non-prosecution or deferred prosecution and a percentage discount on the multi-million dollar fines they had to pay for their active participation in the scheme set up that exposed a network of million-dollar bribes paid by companies of sports marketing to soccer officials in exchange for rights to television broadcasts and promotion of tournaments.
The modus operandi applied by the banks sanctioned by the American courts have many similarities with the alleged money laundering scheme between the late leader Nicolás Leoz and the Atlas bank, owned by the Zuccolillo family.
Collaboration with US Justice
The Swiss bank Julius Baer agreed with the United States Department of Justice to be subject to deferred prosecution in exchange for collaborating by providing complete and truthful information regarding all operations carried out with the defendants in the FIFAgate case and their heirs.
Julius Baer, a Swiss bank with international operations, admitted to the US court the laundering of more than US$36 million in bribes in the FIFAgate case. Among those involved is former Argentine soccer manager Julio Grondona, who left millions of dollars to his three heirs. In Paraguay, this same modus operandi was used by the former sports leader Nicolás Leoz and the Atlas bank, of the Zuccolillo family.
In May 2021, the New York Department of Justice reported through a statement that this financial institution admitted before Brooklyn federal judge Pamela Chen that it conspired to launder $36 million in bribes paid to world soccer leaders. The bank made these admissions and signed a three-year deferred prosecution agreement, within which it agrees to return the money earned through the bribery and laundering scheme and to apply strict anti-laundering mechanisms.
As part of this agreement, the bank agreed to pay more than $79 million to US courts (including a fine of $43,320,000 and a forfeiture of $36,368,400) to resolve the investigation into its involvement in the bribery scheme. millionaires paid by sports marketing companies to soccer leaders in exchange for rights to television broadcasts and promotion of tournaments.
Among the sports authorities involved are the former FIFA vice president and former head of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) Julio Grondona, who died in 2014. Throughout the documents they presented to the Court, the investigators refer to Grondona as “Official of the Soccer N° 1″ but they provide sufficient evidence to identify him, such as that he presided over the AFA, who died on July 30, 2014 and left three heirs.
Justice department announcement where Swiss bank Julius Baer had agreed to pay more than $79 million in penalties for its role in money laundering). Photo: Courtesy
Finding itself cornered, the Swiss bank Julius Baer admitted before the United States Justice that it laundered at least US$ 25 million for Grondona, coming from the payment of bribes it received in exchange for the television rights of various sports tournaments. The Swiss entity acknowledged that after Grondona’s death in July 2014, leaving three children (Liliana, Julio and Humberto), it also carried out laundering operations in favor of the heirs. A former bank executive, Jose Luis Arzuaga, admitted to conspiring to execute illegal transactions using bank accounts knowing that the purpose of these transactions was to conceal and disguise the bribe money. In addition, he admitted that he used false information to justify at least one payment to Grondona’s relatives.
channeled bribes
The bank also admitted that it channeled the bribes linked to the television rights of the Copa América, the Libertadores and the Sudamericana to multiple continental soccer executives, including Nicolás Leoz, former president of Conmebol and the Paraguayan Soccer Association, but without detail the exact amount.
In the document, through which the agreement with the American justice is concluded, it is highlighted that the bank did not adequately carry out the investigation or address signs of money laundering and did not consider the red alerts in relation to the account holders involved.
Scheme traced in Paraguay
Nicolás Leoz would also have used the same modus operandi as Grondona to launder money in favor of his heiresses, but in this case using a local bank for this purpose, the Atlas bank owned by the Zuccolillo family.
According to a forensic audit ordered by Conmebol on commercial operations between the Atlas bank and Nicolás Leoz, in February 2016 two trust contracts were signed between Leoz and the Zuccolillo family bank. Both were in February 2016, just 1 month and 4 days after the raid on Conmebol, in the context of the widespread FIFAgate scandal and the house arrest ordered against Leoz.
The same US law firm that was hired by the Swiss bank was the one that requested reports from Banco Atlas of Paraguay. Photo: Courtesy
The Atlas bank ignored the warning signs about Leoz, extradition request and criminal proceedings opened against him and authorized trusts for more than Gs 40 billion. The facts, public and notorious, pointed to Leoz as part of a mafia organization dedicated to fraud and money laundering.
The operations authorized by Atlas allowed Leoz’s money to be shielded, turning the fund into an autonomous patrimony, exempt from possible embargoes and administered by the bank in favor of Leoz and his daughters with the expressly agreed purpose of covering health expenses and of judicial processes.
Atlas bank did not apply the due diligence procedure stipulated in Law No. 6497 that prevents money laundering and obliges banks to identify the client, prepare a profile of the same that allows determining if it is a “high risk” client; verify the legality of your funds and monitor your transactions.
In November 2020, the daughters of Nicolás Leoz ordered the Zuccolillo family bank to return more than G. 8 billion to Conmebol, the product of one of the trust contracts that the bank signed with the former sports leader. Leoz’s own family made it clear that the operation at Banco Atlas was shady, and the bank in turn confirmed, by returning part of the money, that funds came out of these trusts as compensation for damages to Conmebol, as a result of conduct attributed to Nicolás Leoz.
If the operation was clean, why did the daughters return the money? It also remains to be answered: How much did the Zuccolillo bank profit with the dirty money diverted by Nicolás Leoz?
The Atlas bank denied information to the US justice about commercial operations with Leoz, alleging “bank secrecy”. The directors of the financial institution have been facing criminal proceedings two years ago for alleged money laundering. The directors of the bank are exposed to possible criminal sanctions in Paraguay for the crime of money laundering and the bank is subject to administrative sanctions and to return the benefits and profits obtained in the trust operations carried out by Nicolás Leoz in favor of his heirs. .
Obs: All the documents used for this investigation, published by the US Department of Justice, were translated into Spanish by a public translator registered by the Supreme Court of Justice in order to have fidelity and total precision regarding their contents.
