DOJ accuses Russia & Qatar of bribing FIFA for rights to host soccer the World Cup. This case has connections to much of Swamp & stopping this case may have been a prime motivator of Russia & Qatar intervening in 2016 election. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/three-media-executives-and-sports-marketing-company-indicted-fifa-case
#ButNothingsHappening

This indictment went out late on Monday, I told @DrStefool I'd get a thread out on Tuesday afternoon, but life & posting has been disrupted with lockdown. But I am finally getting to post about it because it requires explaining connections to other scandals including #Spygate!

These are the 'new' defendants in a case that has been running for many years & including them in the RICO case against FIFA & it's continental management groups is a big step forward. It appears investigations into certain aspects of FIFA corruption were obstructed for years.

This has been spearheaded by the FBI's Integrity in Sport and Gaming Initiative designed to root out corruption in sports & casinos. Probably something near & dear to the heart of @realDonaldTrump who has been helping FBI root out corruption in those industries for decades!

International soccer or football has been plagued with corruption for many decades on a global scale. From rigging bids for who gets to host, broadcast, advertise, or merchandise events; to match fixing, gambling revenue, & other forms of corruption.

They of course relied upon the tried & true methods of laundering illegal proceeds of corruption: shell companies, fraudulent consulting contracts, banking through havens to launder the money & much more.

The mention of CONCACAF is very important, as that was the wing of FIFA that was infiltrated by the FBI. Flipping their President Chuck Blazer by 2011 (maybe earlier) & wiring him up to catch other leaders engaged in corruption.
#MobstersCheckInButTheyDontCheckOut

If you follow me, you won't be surprised to learn that Donald Trump lured Chuck Blazer & CONCACAF into renting space at the Trump Tower! Like a long line of criminals, it lead to his downfall. Trump properties come with a free financial colonoscopy!
https://victoryjournal.com/stories/donald-trump-americas-first-soccer-president/

A free financial colonoscopy with any criminal findings being shared with the Trump families allies in the FBI & DOJ!!!

Don't mind the politics of this article, once you understand that all of Trump's scandals were part of FBI covert operations the dots they present are very clear!
I even learned of a few new 1s in this story, like Trump attempting to buy a soccer team based in Medellin, Columbia.

They have a good laugh that Trump was renting a $6000 a month condo to Blazer's cats! Great time for a cat GIF @Avery1776

But lets turn back to what Chuck Blazer did...
He got flipped by the FBI & then EDNY US Attorney Loretta Lynch because he had been caught in crimes by the FBI & IRS. In 2012, he was carrying a bugged key chain to the London Olympics to meet with his co-conspirators & friends!

Blazer's tax evasion was his weak link. I wonder if his financial records to Trump Tower didn't match what he was sending to the IRS? He was also embezzling money from CONCACAF & laundering it for his own use!

This is where the timeline gets interesting & starts connecting to #Spygate. So at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Feds wanted Blazer wearing a wire with Russian officials. But only in March 2020 do we get a DOJ indictment making allegations against Russians.
Why the 8 year delay?

So from some time in 2011 until late 2014, Blazer was gathering evidence against Russians & Qataris rigging the bidding for the World Cup hostings. Yet those cases still have not lead to direct indictments, this is the first case claiming a direct connection.

Blazer has died of cancer since his indictments, so he is no longer around to testify about what happened during his decades of corruption.
What was one of the main means of hiding this FIFA corruption? Swiss bank secrecy laws, but those were broken with a DOJ agreement w banks.

In 2010, British soccer interests hired #Spygate star Christopher Steele to help investigate Russian corruption efforts as London hoped to host the 2018 World Cup. In 2010, Steele met with FBI's Mike Gaeta who ran the Eurasian organized crime TF. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2604626/christopher-steele-fifa-sepp-blatter-russia-world-cup-2018/

Yet remarkably, when the indictments started rolling out in 2014-15, the two groups of officials that did not get indicted were the Russians & the Qatari's. How could an investigation into Russians get everyone except Russians?

Did Steele guide the FBI away from his targets?

Remarkably in 2012, Steele & Orbis took Oleg Deripaska, better known as Putin's oligarch and an alleged organized crime boss, as a client. Could this be why an investigation of Russians found everyone except the Russians?

Deripaska was also an FBI asset for Andrew McCabe...

Sorry to leave it at this point, but real like intrudes, I will be back with much more!

So how was Blazer flipped, by 'coincidence' an IRS agent looked up his tax returns to find he had not filed any in 17 years!
So what do IRS & FBI do? Sit down in the lobby of Trump Tower & force him to flip against FIFA corruption.
HT @SamSimeonSays
https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/07/13/fifa-world-cup-trump-mueller-comey-putin-steele/

The corruption from FIFA is legendary, & goes back to at least 1974 when the son of the founder of Adidas was brought on board to market the World Cup. Bringing money & sponsorship into the game!

Starting in 1978, television rights begin to compete with sponsorship as the main revenue stream. So the corrupt middle-men get the TV rights from FIFA, then parse it out country by country to networks for higher prices & kickbacks. Just like the case in Monday's indictment.

Previous attempts at prosecution had been pathetic, the Swampy corruption was endemic not only in soccer but in ensuring legal systems turned a blind eye to 'commissions' paid out as bribes.

Just like with the oil & mining industries I discuss in other cases, the corruption from the 3rd world moves into the industry, then spreads from that industry into politics & erodes the rule of law to keep the spice flowing & the goals coming...

Eventually leading to senior politicians & judges being on the take to protect the corruption.

So enter Christopher Steele & friends slightly before Blazer gets flipped. Working for English soccer interests supposedly against Russian corruption, which actually won out for the bid over the UK.

So his efforts failed to prevent the corruption of the process...

Interesting that some of the bribes were reportedly being paid in rare art, another topic that has propped up in corruption cases.
But Steele reached out to FBI SSA Gaeta, the same person he would approach in July 2016 with his collusion dossier!

Again the journalists are amazed that bad guys who move into Trump Tower end up under the FBI's microscope & eventually in a federal court! #MobstersCheckInButTheyDontCheckOut

So many people fail to see it, Trump serving as an FBI bird dog for the same people over & over again. Giuliani, Mueller, Comey, Lynch & many more Trump allies. With Barr #TheyGotTheBandBackTogether!

Now, if Mueller, then Comey & Lynch were leading this global prosecution of FIFA & Swamp Creatures around the global how would you sabotage it?
By placing people below them to recommend actions that would force 1 of 2 things. Letting the bad guys get away, or forcing interference

In FIFA, Spygate, the Coup, & the global banking & extractive industry cases the same pattern emerges: subordinates try to kill cases, avoid oversight, & frame the boss for 'interfering' with the case if they try to control their subordinates.

As I have said many times before, Spygate was never about Trump, it was about dirty actors attempting to control the FBI & DOJ to rig cases & protect the Swamp.

All of this corruption required protecting the #MoneyLaundering networks through global banks.

The inability to trust all the players at the US DOJ lead to these investigations starting overseas first. Then following the money back to the US with overwhelming evidence from the #receipts & prosecutions.

In 2018, FIFA awards the 2026 World Cup to the US & @Potus; maybe in an effort to placate the US Administration. The continued prosecutions show that didn't work!

But it does throw a lifeline to FIFA as an organization, if it cleans up it's act it will get to survive this.

A deal very similar to what the banks & corrupt corporations have received from the Sessions/Barr DOJ. Handing over the profits, receipts, corrupt executives & corrupt customers will allow them to avoid the death penalty for their crimes. While so many think #ButNothingsHappening

Then we get to today's declassification of footnotes, or more accurately the lack of declassification of this footnote from the OIG's report on the FISA's in Carter Page.

But the letter to Sen. Johnson tells us it is about. "... information received by a member of the Crossfire Hurricane team regarding possible previous attempts by a foreign government to penetrate and research a company or individuals associated with Christopher Steele."

So were both the FIFA protection of Russian corruption and the Russian disinformation in the #SteeleDossier because of this foreign govt. penetrating Orbis & Steele's intelligence business?

Guesses on who that foreign government might be? Russia would be suspect #1. Or Ukraine