SAO PAULO
Police in Brazil have broken up a long-running international World Cup ticket scam, local press reported Wednesday.
A three-month investigation resulted in 11 arrests amid the suspected involvement of members of FIFA, the governing body of world football, and the football federations of Brazil, Argentina and Spain, according to Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.
The arrests on charges of illegal money changing, organized crime and money laundering took place Tuesday in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. According to the police investigation, the scam was also operating at the previous three competitions in Japan and South Korea, Germany, and South Africa.
Investigators from the civil police and the Rio public prosecutor’s office intercepted a series of telephone calls made by a man named in the newspaper as 57-year-old Algerian national Mouhamadou Lamine Fofana.
Lamine's calls were reportedly traced to individuals in Zurich, where FIFA is headquartered, and in Granja Comary, home to the Brazil national side's training base in the city of Teresópolis, north of Rio.
"We have information [suggesting that] football teams diverted tickets to scalpers through someone who was benefiting from the sale," police chief Fábio Baruk was quoted as saying. "We already have a statement by one of those accused who worked for these three football teams."
It is thought some of the tickets had been allocated to players and members of the teams' technical bodies but were not claimed. Police believe Lamine had associates with access to the Brazilian training ground and FIFA.
The gang allegedly used front companies to buy tickets which were then sold on for around $1,365 each.
Police believe the suspects stood to make around $90 million at the tournament, the newspaper claimed.
Legitimate tickets for the final in Rio's famous Maracanã stadium are priced at between $440 and $990, according to FIFA’s website.
The world body normally gives out 700 tickets to each football federation playing in a given game and the Brazilian Football Federation, as hosts, is given an additional 30,000 tickets.
The charges carry a maximum 18-year prison sentence under Brazilian law.
No-one at FIFA or the Brazilian Football Federation was available for comment.
