Freeh Group Europe is a global crisis management and risk management consulting firm headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. [1] The firm advises clients in the areas of corporate compliance, investigations, due diligence, and security. Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis Freeh has been the firm’s Honorary Chairman since its establishment in 2009. [2]
Freeh Group Europe is an independent consultancy whose clients include corporations in the manufacturing, pharmaceutical, sporting, technology, and logistics sectors. [3]
Freeh Group Europe is affiliated with the U.S.-based firm Freeh Group International Solutions LLC and the law firm Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP, whose founding partners include Stanley Sporkin, former General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, [4] and Eugene Sullivan, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. [5]
In addition to its Zurich headquarters, the firm maintains offices in Amsterdam, Rome, and Stuttgart. Its consultants include lawyers, accountants, forensic technology specialists, industry experts, and former law enforcement agents. [6]
In 2010, Freeh was appointed for a three-year term as an independent compliance monitor in the deferred prosecution agreement between the United States Department of Justice and Daimler AG. [7]
In 2011, Freeh Group Europe was engaged by the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate allegations of bribery at the global sporting organization. [8] The Freeh Group inquiry uncovered evidence that former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam offered cash to Caribbean Football Union officials in exchange for their votes in the Federation’s presidential election at the 61st FIFA Congress. [9] This inquiry led to the resignation of FIFA vice president, Trinidadian Jack Warner, as well as a lifetime ban against participation in the organization for bin Hammam. [10]
In the United States, Freeh has been retained to conduct an investigation into allegations of abuse at Pennsylvania State University, [11] and has been appointed as trustee for the MF Global bankruptcy case. [12]
The Fédération internationale de football association is the international governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. These national associations must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: CAF (Africa), AFC, UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF, OFC (Oceania) and CONMEBOL.
Joseph "Sepp" Blatter is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of the FIFA corruption case made public that year, and will remain banned until 2027.
The Mercedes-Benz Group AG is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-Benz was formed with the merger of Benz & Cie. and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft in 1926. The company was renamed DaimlerChrysler upon acquiring the American automobile manufacturer Chrysler Corporation in 1998, and was again renamed Daimler AG upon divestment of Chrysler in 2007. In 2021, Daimler AG was the second-largest German automaker and the sixth-largest worldwide by production. In February 2022, Daimler was renamed Mercedes-Benz Group as part of a transaction that spun-off its commercial vehicle segment as an independent company, Daimler Truck.
Graham Basil Spanier is a South African-born American sociologist and university administrator who became the 16th president of Pennsylvania State University on September 1, 1995. On November 9, 2011, in the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, Spanier and longtime football coach Joe Paterno were “removed from their positions” by the Penn State board of trustees.
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such as the financing of the Panama Canal. The firm handles high profile work such as complex mergers and acquisitions, securities litigation, and white-collar defense and government investigations. It is one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with 2021 profits per partner exceeding $6 million and profits per lawyer exceeding $1.3 million.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a global white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm employs approximately 800 attorneys throughout 23 offices around the world.
Mohammed bin Hammam is a Qatari who was a football administrator and president of the Asian Football Confederation from 1 August 2002 to 14 June 2011, and a member of FIFA's 24-man executive committee from 1996 to 2011 for more than 15 years.
Eugene Raymond Sullivan is an American lawyer who is a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush named him the chief judge. When not recalled to active court service, Sullivan is a senior partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan LLP.
Latham & Watkins LLP is an American multinational law firm. Founded in 1934 in Los Angeles, California, Latham is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue. As of 2022, Latham is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with profits per partner exceeding US$5.7 million.
Alston & Bird LLP is an international law firm with over 800 lawyers in 13 offices throughout the United States, Europe, the UK, and Asia. The firm provides legal services to both domestic and international clients who conduct business worldwide. Alston & Bird has advised companies including Amazon.com, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Bank of America, Starbucks, Toyota, Dell, UPS, and Nokia. Since 2000, Fortune has ranked the firm in the 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The firm's core practices include intellectual property, complex litigation, corporate and tax, with national industry focusing on energy and sustainability, health care, financial services, and public policy.
Markus U. Diethelm is currently the Group General Counsel of Credit Suisse AG and member of the Executive Board, holding this position since 2022. Prior to that, he held the same position at UBS AG since September 2008, when Diethelm was initially appointed as a member of the group executive board of UBS. Additionally, he served as an executive board member of UBS Business Solutions AG from 2015 to 2016.
Louis Joseph Freeh is an American attorney and former judge who served as the fifth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from September 1993 to June 2001.
MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker, or commodities brokerage firm that went bankrupt in 2011. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over-the-counter products such as contracts for difference (CFDs), foreign exchange and spread betting. MF Global Inc., its broker-dealer subsidiary, was a primary dealer in United States Treasury securities. A series of perceived liquidity problems and large fines and penalties dogged MF Global starting in 2008, and led to its bankruptcy in 2011.
Samuel W. Seymour, a lawyer, is of counsel at the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and former president of the New York City Bar Association.
Charles Gordon Blazer was an American soccer administrator, who held a number of high level positions before becoming a government informant on widespread corruption within organized soccer and subsequently being banned by FIFA in 2015. He was a FIFA Executive Committee member from 1996 to 2013, the CONCACAF general secretary from 1990 to 2011, and executive vice president of the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The 61st FIFA Congress was held between 31 May and 1 June 2011 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA is the governing body of world association football, and the congress is the annual meeting of FIFA's supreme legislative body. This is the eighth congress to be held in Zurich, and the first since 2007. After an opening ceremony and a reminder of FIFA events and activities in 2010, the second day witnessed decisions taken, and the unveiling of the 2010 financial results. The opening ceremony was presented by Melanie Winiger, and featured singer Grace Jones, hammered dulcimer player Nicolas Senn, and juggler Alan Šulc.
Zhang Jilong is a Chinese football administrator who is the current senior vice president of the Asian Football Confederation. He previously served as Vice President of AFC from 2002 to 2011 and as Senior Vice President from 11 January 2007 to 1 August 2011. He had been the Acting President of the Asian Football Confederation from 14 June 2011 until 1 May 2013 after the resignation of Mohammed Bin Hammam. He was also a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.
The Caribbean Football Union corruption scandal involved attempted bribery used to win the votes of national football associations from the Caribbean Football Union in the 2011 FIFA presidential election.
In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer.
The FIFA Ethics Committee is one of FIFA's three judicial bodies. It is organized in two chambers, the Investigatory Chamber and the Adjudicatory Chamber. Its duties are regulated by several official documents, most importantly the FIFA Code of Ethics. FIFA's other judicial bodies are the Disciplinary Committee and the Appeal Committee.
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