Wealth planner among FIFA rogues gallery

The scandal that’s plaguing the global soccer scene has now put the spotlight in an unflattering way on financial advisors, everywhere

The FIFA executive committee of 2010 is looking more like a rogues gallery every day, with two more members of the panel which voted on the 2018-2022 World Cup hosts formally confirmed as under investigation by the governing body's ethics committee. This is in addition to the ten out of 24 already banned, with allegations affecting nearly all, including financial planner Jaques Anouma.
 
Anouma joined FIFA in 2007, and was financial adviser to former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo who was ousted in 2011.
 
Anouma was one of three African football senior figures accused by Phaedra Al-Majid, who worked on the bid in 2011, of being paid $1.5m to throw their vote in the surprisingly successful Qatari 2022 World Cup bid. All three denied the allegations and Al-Majid later retracted her claims, but has since been taken into FBI protective custody amid reports that she was coerced into dropping her allegations.
 
The two latest FIFA members to come under the microscope this week are German soccer icon Franz Beckenbauer and FIFA vice president Angel Maria Villar.
 
The current lineup includes the following:
 
Sepp Blatter – currently suspended and under criminal investigation for alleged bribery
 
Julio Gronoda – implicated in bribery allegations. Died in 2014
 
Issa Hayatou – Denies bribery allegations. Reprimanded in 2011 by IOC for taking cash from FIFA's marketing agency
 
Chung Mong-Joon – Banned for six years over allegations of trying to throw 2022 World Cup vote
 
The list, unfortunately, goes on and on.

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