Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner solicited $10-million in bribes from the South African government to host the 2010 World Cup, the U.S. Justice Department said. Warner issued a statement saying he is innocent of any charges.ANDREA DE SILVA/Reuters
The cash was carefully bundled, as requested, in stacks of $10,000 in U.S. currency. Then, in a hotel room in Paris, a high-ranking South African official allegedly gave the cash-filled briefcase to a family member of Jack Warner, a powerful vice-president at the global soccer body FIFA.
The secret payment was just to grease the wheels, the beginning of a process of corrupt negotiations that culminated in a $10-million bribe from the South African government and finally the awarding of the historic 2010 World Cup to South Africa, according to a year-long U.S. investigation and a 162-page indictment.
South Africa planned to disguise the $10-million bribe as "support" for the "African diaspora" when the money was sent to Mr. Warner's soccer association in the Caribbean, the indictment said. It's unclear how much was ultimately pocketed personally by Mr. Warner, but the amount is alleged to be in the millions of dollars.
The allegations are already sending shock waves across South Africa, where the soccer authorities are closely interlinked with the government of President Jacob Zuma. The indictment casts a shadow over one of South Africa's proudest achievements: the first World Cup ever played on the African continent.
Two high-ranking South African soccer officials, including the one who allegedly gave the cash to Mr. Warner, are listed as co-conspirators in FIFA's corrupt schemes, according to the indictment. Neither is identified in the indictment, but opposition MPs on Wednesday were demanding their names.
Until now, the South African government has always portrayed the awarding of the World Cup as a triumph for hard-working officials and a testament to the charm and persuasiveness of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid hero and first democratic president who campaigned hard for South Africa to get the World Cup.
South African soccer officials have often talked of their "arduous" toil and "sacrifices" in pursuing the World Cup. They even awarded themselves a Christmas bonus of about $18,000 each for their "hard work" in getting the World Cup. The former head of South Africa's bid committee, Danny Jordaan, became such a national hero that he was recently appointed mayor of Port Elizabeth, one of the country's main coastal cities.
But the U.S. indictment, which alleges a vast and systematic scheme of corruption at FIFA, paints a very different picture of how South Africa won the right to hold the World Cup.
Mr. Warner, charged with corruption in the U.S. Justice Department indictment on Wednesday, had allegedly cultivated close links with South African soccer officials for many years while South Africa unsuccessfully campaigned for the 2006 World Cup and then won the right to hold the 2010 World Cup.
The indictment says Mr. Warner had instructed his unidentified family member to fly to Paris and meet the high-ranking South African official in a hotel room to accept the briefcase full of cash. The family member then took the money to Mr. Warner in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago, it said.
In 2004, the indictment said, Morocco secretly offered a $1-million payment to Mr. Warner if he supported Morocco's bid for the 2010 World Cup. But the bribe offer was topped by South Africa, which promised to send $10-million to the Caribbean Football Union, headed by Mr. Warner, with the understanding that the money was for Mr. Warner and his associates, the indictment said.
After Morocco lost its bid and South Africa was awarded the World Cup, the South African government said it couldn't provide the $10-million from government funds, so the money instead was diverted from payments that FIFA had promised to send to South Africa to help pay for World Cup expenses, the indictment said.
It details how $10-million was transferred in three tranches in 2008 from FIFA's offices in Switzerland to bank accounts in New York controlled by Mr. Warner in the name of two regional soccer associations. Much of the money was then pocketed by Mr. Warner through money-laundering schemes involving his associates, it said.
Mr. Warner was reported to have surrendered to authorities in Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday. He issued a statement denying the corruption charges, proclaiming his innocence and accusing "large world powers" of trying to control FIFA's business decisions.
Geoffrey York