Bern, Switzerland: Switzerland’s attorney general’s office has raided FIFA again to get more evidence in its ongoing investigations of Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke.
“Documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings,” the federal prosecution office said Friday, one day after the latest search at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber opened criminal proceedings against former FIFA president Blatter last September, and in March against former FIFA secretary general Valcke.
Both are suspected of criminal mismanagement of FIFA money.
“The investigations still relate only to the persons named in earlier statements issued by the OAG (office of the attorney general) and further persons unknown,” Lauber’s office said, adding that the search was conducted with the “aim of confirming existing findings and obtaining further information.”
Blatter and Valcke deny wrongdoing but were banned for six and 12 years, respectively, by FIFA’s ethics committee.
Read Also: FIFA's acting Secretary General Markus Kattner sacked
Three weeks after new FIFA President Gianni Infantino claimed that “the crisis is over,” the turmoil rocking soccer’s world governing body continues.
Last week, FIFA fired its long-time finance officer Markus Kattner over alleged irregular bonus payments totaling millions of dollars.
Kattner was finance officer for the last 13 years of Blatter’s 17-year presidency and had been Valcke’s deputy since 2007.
Blatter and Valcke are also targets or witnesses in an American investigation of bribery and corruption implicating FIFA.
Several former FIFA vice presidents are among more than 40 soccer and marketing officials, plus marketing agencies, who have been indicted by or made guilty pleas to U.S. federal prosecutors.
