Major global banks — including Wall Street giants Citigroup and J.P. Morgan — could be drawn into the sweeping probe into alleged racketeering, wire fraud and corruption in the soccer world, as investigators trawl through evidence tied to the FIFA bribery scandal.

“ ‘It’s too early to say whether there’s any problematic behavior, but it will be part of our investigation.’ ”

A raft of banks have been named in the 164-page indictment that the U.S. Department of Justice released Wednesday, alleging that nine soccer officials from the sport’s top governing body, FIFA, and five sports executives were part of a 24-year corruption scheme involving more than $150 million in bribes.

Among major financial institutions allegedly used to facilitate payments and wire transfers are J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.21% , Citigroup Inc. C, -1.47% , Bank of America Corp. BAC, -0.55% , HSBC Holdings PLC HSBA, -2.18% HSBC, -2.03% 5, -3.55% , UBS AG CH:UBSN UBS, -1.95% and Julius Baer Gruppe AG BAER, +1.24% , according to indictment.

“Part of our investigation will look at the conduct of the financial institutions to see whether they were cognizant of the fact they were helping launder these bribe payments,” Kelly T. Currie, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news conference on Wednesday, according to media reports. “It’s too early to say whether there’s any problematic behavior, but it will be part of our investigation.”

None of the banks has been accused of wrongdoing. Citi, Bank of America, Citi and HSBC weren’t immediately available for comment. Representatives of UBS and J.P. Morgan declined to comment, while a representative from Julius Baer said he wasn’t able to comment on the case but added that the bank always cooperates with authorities when requested.

Bribery scheme ‘relied’ on U.S. banks

According to the FIFA indictment, the U.S. banking sector played a central role in the alleged bribery scheme.

As early as the 1990s, but increasingly in the 2000s and 2010s, “the defendants and their co-conspirators relied heavily on the United States financial system,” the charges state. “This reliance was significant and sustained and was one of the central methods and means through which they promoted and concealed their schemes.”

Many of the transactions involved millions of dollars that would pass through U.S. bank accounts before allegedly being redirected to personal accounts. In one example, transactions totaling $10 million were alleged to have been wired from a FIFA account in Switzerland to a Bank of America account in New York to be credited to accounts held by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and CONCACAF, the continental confederation under FIFA headquartered in the United States.

However, the accounts were controlled by Jack Warner, one of the officials charged in the bribery case.

Read:Who’s who in FIFA probe

“Soon after receiving these wire transfers, the defendant Jack Warner caused a substantial portion of the funds to be diverted for his personal use,” according to indictment.

The FIFA scandal hit just in the run-up to a closely watched vote on the presidency of FIFA set for Friday. The 79-year-old Sepp Blatter is seeking re-election for a fifth term. Blatter is not named in the fraud allegations.