By Steve Brenner

As Copa America kicks off on Friday, Jeffrey Webb – the power broker shown to have obtained the event illegally for the United States – quietly awaits his fate

Fast cars. Monstrous mansions. Bribes, backhanders, and ridiculously expensive gravy boats.

Welcome to the murky world of Jeffrey Webb and his reign at the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), which has developed into a key component on cracking down on corruption-shaming soccer.

Today, the once well-respected Cayman Islander awaits his fate to be decided after pleading guilty to seven counts of receiving bribes for the sale of commercial rights for 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifying matches, and again in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The fast-approaching Copa America Centenario tournament was also included in the illegal activities, with $110m revealed to have been obtained inappropriately.

While the festivities of that showpiece event begins, which the 50-year-old had a hand in planning, Webb sits in the shadows contemplating where it all went wrong.

A lavish birthday party for his wife earlier this year, staged at his Georgia estate while under house arrest, perhaps proved he’s not overly perturbed at the prospect of spending 20 years in jail.

He should be. Certainly, it will take more than a moment of majesty from Lionel Messi to shed light on a life which has become mired in darkness and deceit.

The spotlight will be shining fiercely in the organization’s direction this summer – and rightly so. It promises to be a huge moment for recently elected president Victor Montagliani’s brave new era.

Over two years ago, I was approached by the Caribbean news program 18 Degrees North with the backing of the Fund for Investigative Journalism to begin investigating Webb and his rise to becoming one of the most powerful men in the game, as well as a potential successor to the disgraced Sepp Blatter.

Already, the organization was teetering following the ruinous reign of the notorious Jack Warner, who was implicated in numerous corruption allegations, which flagged Fifa’s ethics committee before his resignation in 2011.

A supposed attempt to paint the idea of a shiny, new era of transparency under Webb’s guidance was being preached.

Indeed, during an interview with ‘18 Degrees North’ in the Cayman Islands in October 2013, Webb spoke about the organization owing the IRS $6m – just one of the myriad repercussions of Warner and his American cohort Charles ‘Chuck’ Blazer allegedly defrauding Concacaf to the tune of $80m.

Interest was instantly piqued, and so began a trail after the former banker-turned-administrator, uncovering the garish arrogance and needless opulence, which is unfortunately symptomatic of the fat cats who have robbed the people’s global game.

After months of emails, the former head of public affairs, Felicitas Columbo, whose PR team desperately tried to shut down the interview down following Webb’s admission, immediately went into crisis-management mode when we met at a Miami hotel in April 2014.

She talked emotionally of how Webb’s confidant, Enrique Sanz, had been diagnosed with leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy, which, naturally, eclipsed any football matters.

Significantly, Colombian-American Sanz, with offices in Brazil and the United States, was heading up the organization’s Miami office. He had administered a $1.1m payment from a sports-marketing and TV-distribution company for the media rights to Concacaf’s 2013 Gold Cup, as well as the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Champions Leagues. Though Sanz was not named, he is widely thought to be “Co-Conspirator #4”, who is described as serving as a “high ranking official at Traffic Sports” from 1999 to 2012, which is the Sanz was named Concacaf’s general secretary. He was terminated from that post last year after the FBI investigation was made public.

The following year, Webb, who remarkably started his presidency without receiving a salary (despite being strongly advised otherwise), received a $3m backhander when the contract was renewed.

Clearly, this was a man who didn’t need a paycheck.

Accepting the bribe, however, was just one of many infractions ensuring he was unequivocally implicated during the FBI’s 47-count indictment in 2015, which uncovered fraudulent activity within Fifa at an unprecedented level.

The 50-year-old Cayman Islands FA boss agreed to forfeit more than $6.7m as part of his plea deal after failing to meet the $10m bail conditions.

Furthermore, Fifa have written to the US Department of Justice urging them to take a harder look at Webb’s assets.

The revelation that his wife owned a Ferrari simply added to growing concerns about how the man, who was eyeing the top job at Fifa, led his life.

Of the 39 people charged by US authorities, 12 were Concacaf officials.

The corruption started by Warner, prosecutors allege, was being perpetuated by Webb. Fresh new start, indeed.

Nevertheless, when New York-based attorney, Samir Gandhi, and his colleagues from law firm Sidley Austin were refused to access to the organization’s details following his arrival soon after Webb’s appointment four years ago, alarm bells started shrieking.

There were no financial records for 2012-13 (records for 2014 and 2015 remain the subject of an internal investigation). Concacaf was on its knees.

Although a clean-up is well underway, warning of overspending and needlessly overstretching resources are still not being heeded. After all, such a deep-rooted culture of wrongdoing won’t course-correct overnight.

“Right now, it’s not stable and there is, still, an aura of corruption over the organization,” said Gandhi, who worked tirelessly on the independent 2013 report headed by Concacaf integrity committee head David Simmons which uprooted Warner and is now charged with reforming the regional body once again.

Having witnessed first-hand the callous nature of Warner and Blazer’s acts, the lawyers were understandably wary, especially as Webb – who worked for Fifa’s audit committee when Warner and Blazer were running amok – and Sanz’s friendship deepened.

“I first met Jeff Webb in May 2012,” Gandhi recalled. “He had just become president and, on someone else’s recommendation, had asked to talk to us. I brought in our internal investigations and white-collar team. I made some suggestions about how to investigate, what we would do about media rights, and certain valuations.

“I just tried to create some best practices compared to what they already had. The biggest issue we had was the organization never had any financial statements, so we had to come in and deal with all that stuff.

“Enrique did bring some structure, but I remember telling him he needed to hire a real COO who would be in the office on a regular basis to deal with the business of the organization because nothing was getting done. It was all controlled by him and Jeff. I told them, ‘you’re going to run yourself into the ground,’ but they didn’t care about that.”

For Webb to initially decline a salary, Gandhi said, was in itself suggestive.

“I told Jeff to take a modest salary because, at the start, he wasn’t taking anything. I advised him to take one because people would think he was a crook,” Gandhi added.

“Then he took a huge salary which included a lot of reimbursements. Maybe because of that, $3m payoff, he didn’t need the money. That sent a bad message, especially if you’re spending so much time on the job. People will be thinking you’re taking a lot of benefits. He was still connected with the banks, but he wasn’t doing much.

“How on earth was this guy living?”

Ever since Sidley Austin started sifting through the wreckage of Webb’s reign, startling discoveries of financial overspending and purely self-serving decision- making all contributed to sending Concacaf to the brink of liquidation.

Lavish spending by Fifa has long been normalcy. Delegates are treated like royalty.

Due to their crippling finances, a tournament for U-15’s in the Cayman Islands, which would have cost around $2m to stage last summer, was cancelled. The initial excuse was linked with the growing Fifa crisis, yet Concacaf’s desperate lack of funds – there was just $2m of unrestricted cash left with $9m unreachable in a Cayman bank under Webb’s name – was the real reason for its cancellation.

According to the Simmons report, by 2010 Concacaf’s annual revenues had grown to more than $25m ($35m in 2009, a Gold Cup year), its total reported assets exceeded $45m, and Concacaf’s full-time employees totaled more than 30.

Yet in 2015, the pot was almost bare. So, it was no surprise that Gandhi recoiled in surprise and horror when discovering $3m was spent on last summer’s congress in the Bahamas.

“That was an absurd amount for a standalone congress,” he admitted. “It was absolutely outrageous.

“Fifa spends $30m on their congresses, but it’s just not necessary. It’s everything; I am sure some of it is protocol – gifts and things like that, but it just doesn’t need to be that crazy. It needs to be more modest.

“When we had a conference in Miami on February 12th, we may have gone slightly overboard: we booked an airport Hilton, made people double-up, and spent around $150,000 to $200,000 on a full-day meeting for 41 member associations.

“And, that is the kind of range we should be spending. We shouldn’t be spending most of our money on travel and protocol – the largest amounts should be spent on things which go back to our member associations.”

Even following Webb’s arrest, Honduran Alfredo Hawit was, astonishingly, still attempting to broker deals and organize bribes.

Hawitt pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges on 12 April 2016.

“The gall of these people is quite remarkable,” he said. “After the indictments, after coming into implement reforms, while the United States was in the final of the Gold Cup, Hawit was in a separate meeting trying to arrange a payoff. It’s unbelievable. There are some people who feel this could go away and time will pass. They think it will all go back to the way it was. They think cheques will be cut all the time.

“That’s not the way it works anymore.”

Suspicions about Webb’s modus operandi were growing all the time. Attempting to delve into his past, and present, in the Cayman Islands, however, was highly problematic.

Razor-tight privacy laws ensured anyone interviewed remained tight-lipped; private investigators who initially engaged quickly fell silent.

The devil, however, was firmly in the details.

His October 2013 wedding to Kendra Gamble, an Atlanta-based physician, was an indulgent affair.

An extensive gift registry included a $400 gravy boat, and reflected the general opulence revealed in wedding photos of Webb holding an imported cigar and billowing smoke out of a Rolls-Royce.

Webb’s largess didn’t extend only to his jewelry drawer and wedding snaps – real-estate databases revealed a six-bedroom property in Loganville, Georgia, for which a construction company, according to FBI reports, was paid an astounding $1.5m to allegedly perform routine “pool maintenance.”

While on supposed work jaunts, air travel totaling thousands of dollars plus exorbitant bar bills and evenings in the presence of strippers were all claimed for by Webb, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.

There was no shame.

“We did see some of those things moving into 2015 and we are pretty comfortable that all stuff was running through the financial statements,” said Gandhi when asked if expenses totalling thousands of dollars were claimed inappropriately.

“At lot of these things were very inappropriate and the problem we had was that Jeff was approving Enrique’s expenses and vice versa. So that was all run through.

“It takes a lot to pull back and, even when I had attended the Fifa reform committee, all the guys are flying business class; they are staying in very nice hotels.

“At one point, I felt that this was really not necessary. We don’t need to do this. We can stay at the Marriott, we don’t need wine with lunch. We don’t need a formal dinner every night. We are here to work.

“Remember, it’s not our money. It belongs to an organization which has a purpose.”

While Fifa’s Goal Project and FAP (Financial Assisted Programme) initiatives helping to finance much-needed infrastructure in the Caribbean and beyond – preferential treatment was extended to Webb’s allies.

Whereas, for example, poverty-stricken organizations, such as St. Vincent and the Grenadines, have seen plans for a desperately needed training centre continually cancelled, others have received substantial improvements, courtesy of cosy relationships with Webb and other influential power brokers.

“We needed new pitches, new changing rooms, everything. Yet, we got nothing while others received huge benefits because of their closeness with Webb,” said a former national-team coach who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It was very disappointing.”

The creation of a Concacaf office in Webb’s native Cayman Islands to work alongside the main HQ in Miami caused further consternation.

Following his demise, it since has closed down with over 20 contracts dissolved. Other members of staff have been shown the door as the business is scrutinized, analysed, and fine-tuned.

One former employee, Lerina Bright, is suing for wrongful dismissal and, if the case goes to court later this year, her attorneys have promised to release severely unflattering recollections of Webb’s attitude and manner in the workplace.

Sidley Austin will fight her all the way. Such radical change has upset many, yet the new guard are simply saying: “If you don’t like it, then leave.”

The Cayman office, however, was another attempt by Webb to assert his authority.

“Basically, it was because Jeff lived there, which was so typical,” Gandhi admitted.

“It was typical to have an office where the President was, for the General Secretary to move the HQ to wherever he wanted, which was kind of absurd. Imagine becoming the president of General Motors and having the ability to move the HQ to wherever you want. It’s absurd and we got rid of that in the statutes.

“Concacaf Cayman was about Jeff trying to consolidate some power, trying to create an infrastructure that basically was there for what he wanted to do, as opposed to what the organization’s interests were.

“They didn’t need 30 people on two floors in the Cayman Islands. He was using that office to operate his potential presidential and world soccer ambitions.”

Warner, still lurking in the shadows, was withering in his criticism of Webb when speaking with us.

“I haven’t spoken to Webb in the last four years, nor has he spoken to me – that speaks for itself,” he said.

“Before, we used to talk every week, but not since he became a big boy in Fifa.

“He hasn’t spoken to me and I have taken my corner. I haven’t spoken to him, but what Jeff Webb fails to realise is that what goes around, comes around.”

With a culture of deception and corruption running rife through the soccer world, no one, up until now, summoned up the courage to take a stand.

There were cover-ups everywhere the lawyers looked.

“The reality was there were a lot of people who had the ability to say something if they wanted to. But they didn’t,” he added.

The staging of the Copa America will cost $200m.

The crisis which engulfed the soccer authorities, however, almost saw it cancelled before it began. Indeed, US national coach Jurgen Klinsmann told me recently that his preparations were effected with the German in a permanent state of limbo while talks continued behind closed doors as to whether the tournament would ever get off the ground.

In May 2016, US federal prosecutors claimed Conmebol, South America’s governing body, reached an agreement in 2013 with the Argentine sports-marketing company Datisa on a $240m contract for rights to the Copa America in 2015, 2019 and 2023. In 2014, Conmebol, it also also claimed, struck a $112.5m deal for this year’s Copa.

Following last year’s indictments, however, prosecutors alleged Datisa agreed to pay $110m in bribes to South American football officials.

With Webb heavily involved in the development of the tournament, there was little enthusiasm within the United States to host the finals.

It was, after all, born from fraud.

Concacaf, given just six months to organize an event which will be screened around the world, could end up losing money.

Revenues will be split between Conmebol, US Soccer, and Concacaf, although rather than it being seen as a pure money-making exercise, officials are just desperate to produce a spectacle worthy of the entrants.

Concacaf received $14m from Datisa, which they eventually were allowed to keep.

Yet, as negotiations continued last summer, the uncertainty over the Copa wreaked havoc with the organization’s plans for the future.

“We had already received $14m from Datisa, but at that point, we weren’t even sure if the tournament was going to take place, so there was a fear that the money may need to be given back,” said Gandhi who recently met with Fifa’s new president Gianni Infantino to discuss his plans for Concacaf moving forward.

“So, effectively, we were looking at possible liquidation and had little option but to cancel the boys’ tournament in the Cayman.

“We ended the year [2015] with around $28m in unrestricted cash. That roughly translated into a $8m swing from where we were. We already had started at a bad place because the budget for the Bahamas in 2015 was a bullcrap budget.

“It was all wrong. Enrique presented a rosy budget and it wasn’t right. Now, we are implementing new policies in terms of bottom-up budgeting that we will run a slight gain/loss for 2016. That’s not including the Copa.”

The implementation of the ‘Reform Framework’ already has begun, and can be divided into three categories: corporate governance; fraud prevention and compliance; and transparency.

The installation of a new president in North America and, therefore, hauling the power-base away from the Caribbean, has, to some extent, wiped slates clean.

Preventing fraud has been a key part of Gandhi’s work. A pre-approved vendor system for all contracts with Concacaf, including credit and background checks, has been introduced.

Outside consultants are brought in to improve bid processes. Audit counterparties for bribery and fraud, and review of internal controls, including expense and reimbursement controls, also have been introduced.

Furthermore, a whistleblower hotline has been established and will be managed by the organization’s audit committee.

And, in what appears to finally be an era of transparency, annual financial statements and budgets will be made public for the first time.

“Victor will be a good leader; he knows Fifa and they know him,” concluded Gandhi.

“We just have to get back to football, plain and simple.”

IMAGE: Jeffrey Webb in Mexico in December 2014. Photograph: ZUMA/REX Shutterstock

For more on this story go to: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/01/copa-america-begins-after-scandal-jeffrey-webb-power-broker-illegal-trial-us