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 Blatter recently retained Richard Cullen, the chairman of the law
firm McGuireWoods and a former U.S. federal prosecutor, FIFA
confirmed in an email to Reuters on Thursday.
Jerome Valcke, FIFA secretary general, has hired prominent New York
defense attorney Barry Berke to represent him, FIFA said, adding it
had no further comment to make.
Swiss prosecutors looking into the international soccer scandal
identified 53 suspicious bank transactions, the country's attorney
general said on Wednesday, stressing that the investigation may take
time.
Attorney General Michael Lauber told journalists he would not rule
out interviewing Blatter and Valcke, although Switzerland had so far
targeted no individuals.
Switzerland, where FIFA is based, announced its criminal
investigation and seized computers at FIFA headquarters last month
on the same day that the United States revealed indictments of nine
soccer officials and five businessmen as part of a separate probe
into corruption.
"We are faced with a complex investigation with many international
implications," Lauber said in his first public comments since his
office obtained the computer data last month.
"The world of soccer needs to be patient. By its nature, this
investigation will take more than the legendary 90 minutes," he
said, referring to the length of a soccer match.
U.S. prosecutors have not accused Blatter of wrongdoing.
Among the issues the Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining is
Blatter's stewardship of FIFA, sources have said.
U.S. prosecutors believe that Valcke was involved in $10 million in
FIFA bank transactions that are a key part of the investigation, a
source said in early June. He also has not been accused of
wrongdoing.
FIFA LOOKING AT WORLD CUP BIDDING
FIFA's ethics committee confirmed it was conducting its own
investigation into individuals suspected of breaking the rules in
relation to bidding for the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World
Cups, which were granted to Russia and Qatar respectively.
It said it was prepared to investigate more suspects and take on
extra staff if needed.
On Wednesday, Ricardo Teixeira, the former head of the Brazilian
Football Confederation (CBF), said he got "absolutely nothing" in
return for his vote to award Qatar the rights to host the 2022 World
Cup and described suggestions he was involved in impropriety as
"preposterous."
Switzerland's third-largest listed bank, Julius Baer, said on
Wednesday it had launched an internal investigation in connection
with FIFA. It said it was cooperating with the authorities and did
not say when its own probe had begun.
The attorney general said Blatter and Valcke could be among those
summoned for questioning: "There will be formal interviews of all
relevant people. By definition, this does not exclude interviewing
the president of FIFA and this does not exclude interviewing the
secretary general of FIFA."
Lauber said his team had obtained evidence on 104 bank-client
relationships, each of which represented several accounts.
Switzerland's Financial Intelligence Unit anti-money laundering
agency had identified 53 suspicious transactions flagged up from
information supplied by banks.
Blatter was re-elected to a fifth term just two days after the
probes became public. He announced the following week that he would
step down and a new presidential election would be held between
December and February.
In a related development, suspended Asian Football Confederation
(AFC) General Secretary Alex Soosay quit on Wednesday rather than
fight to clear his name, amid allegations he tried to interfere with
an anti-corruption probe of the regional governing body.
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Soosay was suspended last month after Malaysian media reported an
official at the 46-member confederation had been asked by Soosay to
"tamper or hide" documents during a 2012 external audit.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers inspection followed FIFA's decision to
impose a lifetime ban for ethics breaches on former AFC President
Mohamed Bin Hammam, with whom Soosay worked closely.
Bin Hammam was once set to challenge Blatter for the FIFA presidency
but was banned for his part in a cash-for-votes scandal.
GARCIA REPORT SCRUTINIZED
Swiss authorities have said their criminal investigation
specifically targets the decisions to stage the 2018 and 2022 World
Cups. Russia and Qatar deny wrongdoing and say they are preparing to
hold the tournaments as scheduled.
Lauber said his work was completely independent of the ongoing U.S.
cases. While Switzerland had fulfilled a request for legal
assistance from the United States, it had not asked for any such
help in return, he added.
His investigation was looking closely at material generated by
Michael Garcia, an American lawyer hired by FIFA to investigate
ethics violations who spent years examining the Russia and Qatar
bids.
Garcia's report was not published and FIFA released only a summary
which exonerated the Russian and Qatari bids of serious wrongdoing.
Garcia quit saying the summary mischaracterized his report.
However, it resulted in proceedings being opened against unnamed
individuals, which his successor Cornel Borbely said he has
continued.
"Should new evidence come to light, the investigatory chamber will
widen the group of suspects. (It) is prepared to increase its staff
numbers at any time if needed," he said of the 2018 and 2022 World
Cup awards.
Lauber said the U.S. authorities had not asked for Garcia's report.
Lauber said his office had seized nine terabytes of data, the size
of the printed collection of the U.S. Library of Congress.
He said he had no complaints about FIFA's cooperation to date. FIFA
said in a statement that the Swiss investigation was based on a
complaint that it had made itself last November.
"FIFA is cooperating fully as an injured party in the actions by
Swiss authorities," it said.
"FIFA itself instigated these proceedings in November 2014 when it
presented the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process
to the Swiss Office of the Attorney General."
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Berne, Nate Raymond in
New York, Katharina Bart in Zurich, Tom Miles in Geneva and Andrew
Downie in Sao Paulo; Writing by Peter Graff, Brian Homewood and
Bernard Orr; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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