Two things happened this week of note. The United States took on FIFA, an association not particularly known for its U.S. involvement or interest and indicted officials from all over the world. It exercised it jurisdiction because the bribe money was deposited in some cases in U.S. banks. Just that gave the U.S. jurisdiction. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the U.S. claimed it had jurisdiction because the bribe money was brought on a plane that flew over us airspace. It has happened many times before in drug cases. Rare is the occasion when a federal prosecutor cannot show venue. (The right to prosecute in a particular district because “something happened” in that district.
Though there has been a lot of criticism of the United States’ reach into corruption in the FIFA, it tells you is just how much Americans hate, hate, hate corruption of any kind, and their willingness to go to the ends of the earth, literally, to find it and extradite those responsible for it.
The other big news was that one of the most powerful men in government during the Clinton administration; a republican congressman was indicted for lying to government agents who questioned him about withdrawals of several million dollars from his bank account more than 15 years ago! The withdrawals, tied to a sexual encounter, were not the accusations levelled at the congressman. It was the lying. I cannot stress it enough. And I do so because it could change your life. If you lie to the U.S. government, there is an overwhelming chance that you will be found out.
– David Zapp