{"id":567254,"date":"2026-07-30T17:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:40:16","slug":"fifa-could-draw-us-congress-inquiry-over-smash-and-grab-scam-top-democrat-warns-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567254\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa could draw US Congress inquiry over \u2018smash-and-grab scam\u2019, top Democrat warns | Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifa could face a sweeping US congressional investigation into its expanding financial and political ties to Donald Trump<\/a> and his family if Democrats reclaim the House of Representatives in November, a senior party figure has warned.<\/p>\n

Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, accused global football\u2019s governing body of a \u201csmash-and-grab scam of colossal proportions\u201d after it proposed a multibillion-dollar privatization of its commercial operations.<\/p>\n

Raskin, a Democratic representative of Maryland, would become the judiciary committee\u2019s chair under a Democratic House majority, vowed to make Fifa<\/a> an early target of scrutiny \u2013 and accused the organization of embedding itself in what he described as a pattern of corruption surrounding Trump\u2019s second administration and the Kushner family.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last few weeks, Fifa\u2019s cozy relationship to Donald Trump<\/a> has been floating to the top of the swamp of quid pro quo corruption in which the Trump Administration is swimming,\u201d Raskin said in a statement to the Guardian. \u201cBut now we see where all the bribes, kickbacks and sweetheart deals have been leading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raskin\u2019s comments follow plans of the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, to pursue a spin-off of the organization\u2019s commercial business into a standalone company, reportedly valued at about $20bn<\/a>. JPMorgan Chase is leading the fundraising effort, with Thrive Eternal, an investment vehicle linked to the Thrive Capital founder, Joshua Kushner, among the prospective investors. Joshua Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law and a high-level White House adviser.<\/p>\n

The proposal has sparked an immediate backlash across world football, and beyond. Uefa<\/a>, the European football governing body, has warned that \u201cnone of us are the owners of football\u201d, and on Thursday voted to boycott the World Cup<\/a> if Fifa presses ahead.<\/p>\n

The inquiry also follows a series of similarly scandalous controversies surrounding Fifa\u2019s relationship with the Trump administration. The organization invented its first-ever \u201cpeace prize\u201d, which they awarded to Trump<\/a> in December, weeks after he publicly complained about missing out on the Nobel peace prize. During this summer\u2019s World Cup, Uefa accused Fifa of undermining the tournament\u2019s integrity after officials reversed a red card issued to the US forward Folarin Balogun following a call<\/a> from Trump to Infantino. Separately, the US Department of Justice dropped<\/a> the long-running bribery and money-laundering cases tied to the Fifa corruption scandal after prosecutors said they no longer fit the administration\u2019s enforcement priorities.<\/p>\n

Should Democrats \u2013 who lack the legal power to demand that witnesses appear under the current Republican House majority \u2013 win control of the chamber in November\u2019s US midterm elections<\/a>, Raskin would have the authority to compel testimony and documents from Fifa, JPMorgan and entities connected to the Kushner family\u2019s investment vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifa needs to cooperate in good faith now,\u201d he added. \u201cIf and when Democrats<\/a> take the House, this Committee will have the tools we need to get answers, expose corruption, protect sports fans against exorbitant and fraudulent charges and block this attempt to turn world soccer into a global financial shakedown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House has previously dismissed similar allegations as politically motivated. Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The judiciary committee minority under Raskin has already requested records<\/a> from Fifa, including documents related to gifts provided to Trump, communications with the justice department, and visitor logs for Fifa\u2019s Miami headquarters and its Trump Tower office.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifa appears to have struck a several hundred-billion-dollar deal orchestrated by Jared Kushner\u2019s brother and JPMorgan to privatize Fifa\u2019s business operations so private equity, hedge funds, autocrats, kleptocrats and large investors can come to own and control the world\u2019s most beautiful game,\u201d Raskin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is set to host the Women\u2019s World Cup<\/a> in 2031, and we have a responsibility to ensure Fifa will not again bring its own brand of corrupt pay-to-play politics and exploitation onto our soil,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifa could face a sweeping US congressional investigation into its expanding financial and political ties to Donald Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-567254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}