Ken Bensinger - Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.

Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.

We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.

Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2018 by Ken Bensinger

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition June 2018

SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information, or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Jacket design by Darren Haggar

Jacket art by Kycstudio/Getty Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-5011-3390-9

ISBN 978-1-5011-3392-3 (ebook)

For my wife, Patricia, and for my children, Mateo & Sofia

For among My people are found wicked men; They lie in wait as one who sets snares; They set a trap; They catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich.

They have grown fat, they are sleek; Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the fatherless; Yet they prosper, And the right of the needy they do not defend.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

JEREMIAH 5:2629

Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Zurich

Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid Joo Havelange, president (19741998)

Joseph Sepp Blatter, president (19982015); general secretary (19811998)

Jrme Valcke, general secretary (20072015)

Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), New York & Miami

Austin Jack Warner, president (19902011); FIFA vice president & ExCo (19832011)

Charles Gordon Chuck Blazer, general secretary (19902011); FIFA ExCo (19972013)

Jeffrey Webb, president (20122015); FIFA vice president & ExCo (20122015)

Enrique Sanz, general secretary (20122015)

Alfredo Hawit, president (2015); FIFA vice president & ExCo (2015)

Confederacin Sudamericana de Futbol (CONMEBOL), Asuncin, Paraguay

Nicols Leoz, president (19862013); FIFA ExCo (19982013)

Eugenio Figueredo, president (20132014), vice president (19932013); FIFA vice president and FIFA ExCo (20142015)

Juan ngel Napout, president (201415); FIFA vice president & ExCo (2015)

Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Kuala Lumpur

Mohamed bin Hammam, president (20022011); FIFA ExCo (19962011)

National Soccer Associations

Julio Humberto Grondona, president, Asociacin del Ftbol Argentino (19792014); FIFA vice president & ExCo (19982014)

Ricardo Terra Teixeira, president, Confederao Brasileira de Futebol (19892012); FIFA ExCo (19942012)

Jos Maria Marin, president, Confederao Brasileira de Futebol (20122015)

Marco Polo Del Nero, president, Confederao Brasileira de Futebol (2015); FIFA ExCo (20122015)

Sunil Gulati, president, United States Soccer Federation (20062018); FIFA ExCo (2013)

Eduardo Li, president, Federacin Costarricense de Futbol (20072015); FIFA ExCo (2015)

Vitaly Mutko, president, Russian Football Union (20052009; 20152017); FIFA ExCo (20092017)

Rafael Esquivel, president, Federacin Venezolana de Futbol (19882015)

Manuel Burga, president, Federacin Peruana de Futbol (20022014)

Grupo Traffic, So Paulo & Miami

Jos Hawilla, owner and founder

Aaron Davidson, president, Traffic Sports USA

Torneos y Competencias, Buenos Aires

Alejandro Burzaco, chief executive officer

Full Play Group, Buenos Aires

Hugo Jinkis, cofounder & co-owner

Mariano Jinkis, cofounder & co-owner

International Soccer Marketing, Jersey City

Zorana Danis, owner

Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office

Mike Gaeta, supervisory special agent

Jared Randall, special agent

John Penza, supervisory special agent

Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, Los Angeles Field Office

Steven Berryman, special agent

J. J. Kacic, special agent

United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn

Loretta Lynch, United States attorney (20102015); U.S. attorney general (20152017)

Evan M. Norris, assistant United States attorney

Amanda Hector, assistant United States attorney

Darren LaVerne, assistant United States attorney

Samuel P. Nitze, assistant United States attorney

Keith Edelman, assistant United States attorney

M. Kristin Mace, assistant United States attorney

SHORTLY AFTER TEN ON THE morning of August 16, 2011, Steve Berryman, a forty-seven-year-old special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, was in his cubicle on the third floor of a huge federal office building known as the Ziggurat in Laguna Niguel, California, when his mobile phone vibrated. There was a new Google Alert email in his inbox.

Berryman, six feet tall and slender, with brown eyes so dark they looked almost black, thick eyebrows, pale skin, and a neatly trimmed white mustache that matched his slicked-back hair, had set up a number of such alerts. His choice of keywords betrayed a sensibility that, after twenty-five years at the IRS, had become highly refined when it came to financial crimes. Berryman had alerts for money laundering; corruption; Bank Secrecy Act; and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, among many others. The messages arrived in batches throughout the day, delivering dozens of news articles from around the world about various cases of financial misbehavior that Berryman would quickly scan before returning to whatever case he happened to be working.

But this particular notification stopped him in his tracks. The alert was under the search term bribery, and contained a link to an article by the Reuters news service. The headline was FBI Examines U.S. Soccer Bosss Financial Records.

The story described a set of documents, allegedly being scrutinized by the FBI, that outlined more than $500,000 in suspicious payments received over a fifteen-year period by an American soccer official named Chuck Blazer.