Steve Limtiaco

slimtiaco@guampdn.com

In 2009, former Guam Football Association President Richard Lai received $200,000 from international soccer officials to hire a new soccer coach for the Guam national team. But Lai kept the money, never hired a coach and never used any of the money to benefit Guam soccer, according to documents filed by federal prosecutors in New York.

It was the first of many bribes over several years, according to court documents.

Lai last week pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts in connection with receiving nearly $1 million in bribes from officials with international soccer organizations. He resigned as GFA president over the weekend.

Federal prosecutors filed additional documents in New York, providing more details about Lai’s role in a conspiracy to influence the leadership of international soccer.

Documents state Lai was playing both sides of the fence — accepting bribes from two competing factions within international soccer.

Lai started accepting bribes from two officials in 2009 in exchange for his help in taking down a third soccer official, identified as “co-conspirator #1,” documents state.

But Lai in 2011 also accepted a $100,000 bribe from “co-conspirator #1,” who wanted Lai’s support in his bid to be elected FIFA president, documents state.

Most of the bribes involved money transfers to Lai’s bank accounts, documents state, but a co-conspirator once tried to give Lai a bag of cash when Lai was traveling abroad. Lai turned it down, saying he did not want to return to the United States with more than $10,000 in cash, documents state.

Court documents do not name Lai’s co-conspirators, and refer to them only by number — “co-conspirator #1,” as an example.

However, the description of “co-conspirator #1” matches the career and positions held by Mohamed Bin Hammam, who in June 2011 was suspended from FIFA and from the Asian Football Confederation in connection with bribes he paid while competing against Joseph "Sepp" Blatter for the position of FIFA president.

Documents state Lai first was bribed in 2009, when he talked to a person — co-conspirator #3 — about the lack of soccer development funds for the Guam Football Association. Co-conspirator #3 — a high-ranking official with the Olympic Council of Asia, and an official with the Kuwait Football Association — offered money, if Lai needed it.

“Lai said he needed money to hire a coach for Guam’s national soccer team, and co-conspirator #3 said that he and co-conspirator #2 could provide GFA with $200,000 for the coach,” documents state.

But instead of wiring the $200,000 to the Guam Football Association account, the money was wired from Kuwait to Lai’s personal bank account in Hong Kong, documents state. The money never benefited Guam soccer.

Co-conspirator #3 continued to give Lai more money, until late 2014, documents state. Lai sometimes asked to be paid, but other times he was paid without asking, documents state.

After paying Lai, co-conspirators #2 and #3 “began using Lai’s assistance in furtherance of their efforts to diminish co-conspirator #1’s power and influence over the AFC and FIFA,” prosecutors stated.

They succeeded, documents state, because co-conspirator #1 was banned for life from organized soccer, and co-conspirator #2 was elected to the FIFA executive committee.

According to court documents, co-conspirator #1 paid Lai $100,000 in 2011 — money prosecutors said was intended to buy Lai’s support for his bid for president in the FIFA election.

Documents state the bribe was disguised as a consulting agreement. The money was wired to Lai’s bank account in the Philippines — two separate payments of $50,000, in April and May 2011 — but Lai never provided any consulting services.

After co-conspirator #1 was suspended from his leadership positions, and bribery allegations against him were made public, Lai never told anyone he received $100,000 from that person, and he never tried to return the money, prosecutors stated.

Here is a list of the bribes paid to Lai, according to documents: