French investigators pursue Teixeira over link to Monaco bank millions
RIO DE JANEIRO: French investigators have joined the pursuit of Ricardo Teixeira, former president of the Brazilian football confederation, long-time past member of the FIFA executive committee.
Teixeira, former son-in-law of former world federation president Joao Havelange, is already on the wanted list of the United States Department of Justice to face corruption charges in the FIFAGate case.
The 70-year-old quit football in 2012 under pressure over his financial dealings which included claims that he had siphoned off illicit commissions from marketing and television rights deals through accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Andorra.
Earlier this month it was reported in Brazil that Teixeira had shared money-shifting channels with Carlos Nuzman. The latter, Brazil’s former Olympic president and head of the Rio 2016 Games organisers, has been charged with corruption by Brazilian prosecutors.
Teixeira, who has not been charged in Brazil, has long been a figure of speculation over his financial connections to Qatar whose bid to host the 2022 World Cup finals he is thought to have favoured.
French authorities are now investigating a bank account held by Teixeira in Monte Carlo, Monaco, worth around $22m. They believe the account is linked to businessman Ghanem ben Saas al-Saas, former chairman of the Qatari Diar investment fund.
The company, at the centre of a concern over deals with the Veolia services group, is suspected of having diverted $182m in hidden commissions to three companies in various tax havens. The Qatari executive was founder and chairman of the Ghanin Bin Saad al Saad & Sons Group (GSSC), and is reportedly a close friend of Qatar’s Emir Tamim ben Hamad Al Thani.
According to the Brazilian authorities in Sao Paulo, the company sponsored the friendly match between Brazil and Argentina, held on November 17, 2010, two weeks before the country was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup.
French police are investigating whether the $8.6m payment, nominally in connection with the match, may have been directed to Teixeira and an unidentified Argentinian football official, believed to have been the late Julio Grondona, long-time AFA supremo and FIFA’s senior vice-president at the time of his death in 2014.
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