Can One of the Dirtiest Corners of Global Soccer Clean Up Its Own Act? – Bloomberg

It was against this backdrop that delegates from the region arrived at the Sheraton in Miami earlier this month. There to greet them were a pair of Americans, Carlos Vincentelli, a consultant from Miami, and Samir Gandhi, a lawyer from New York, who have been working since June to right the CONCACAF ship.

Not everyone was happy to see them. Over the complaints of some members, the two men have cut budgets, frozen salaries, established a clean cash-management system and ended 18 questionable contracts. They’ve also proposed sweeping changes—from independent directors to term limits—that they say will satisfy the U.S. Department of Justice, which is still investigating the organization.

Inside the Pan Am Ballroom at the Sheraton, Vincentelli—who works for Alvarez & Marsal, a firm perhaps best known for its work on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy—laid out the precarious state of CONCACAF’s finances.

The view is sobering. U.S. criminal charges and CONCACAF records reviewed by Bloomberg News offer the fullest details of the financial mismanagement that continued long after the 2011 resignation of president Jack Warner, whose indictment in May helped dethrone Blatter at FIFA. Warner’s successor, Jeffrey Webb, pledged reform and declared success in 2014, saying “The new CONCACAF is built on trust and transparency.”

But Webb’s new regime bore a striking resemblance to the old one, and documents reviewed by Bloomberg show that from 2012 to 2015, he spent the organization’s money freely. In addition to a $2 million annual salary and the use of a private jet, Webb billed the organization for “delegation travel”—a euphemism for junkets around the world. One trip, from Jamaica to Mexico, cost $96,000, according to an invoice reviewed by Bloomberg.

Webb also used his corporate credit card for bar tabs and strip club bills, at least one of which exceeded $25,000. Webb and his deputy, Enrique Sanz, approved each others’ expenses, an arrangement that helped confer a new BMW X5 on Sanz and awarded business to Sanz’s wife.

Sanz’s lawyer, Joseph A. DeMaria, said there was nothing untoward about either transaction. Sanz paid back a portion of the cost of the BMW as part of his termination agreement, he said, and his wife, a luxury furniture designer, charged CONCACAF a discounted rate.

Webb’s attorney, Edward O’Callaghan, didn’t return repeated calls for comment.