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Federal authorities believe that Sepp Blatter’s top lieutenant at FIFA made $10 million in bank transactions that are central elements of the bribery scandal engulfing international soccer, United States officials and others briefed on the case said Monday. The revelation puts the money trail closer to Mr. Blatter, FIFA’s president, than had been previously known.
美国官员和其他知情人士周一透露，联邦当局相信，赛普·布拉特(Sepp Blatter)在国际足联(FIFA)的一名高级副手进行的1000万美元银行交易，是目前笼罩国际足坛的贿赂丑闻的核心。上述信息再次拉近了FIFA主席布拉特与本案中贿赂行为的关系。
Jérôme Valcke, the soccer organization’s secretary general, is the unidentified “high-ranking FIFA official” who prosecutors say transferred $10 million in 2008 from FIFA to accounts controlled by another soccer official, Jack Warner, the officials said. The payment is a key piece of last week’s indictment accusing Mr. Warner of taking a bribe in exchange for helping South Africa secure the right to host the 2010 World Cup.
检方称有人在2008年将1000万美元从FIFA转到另一名足球官员杰克·沃纳(Jack Warner)控制的多个账户，而这些官员透露，此处所指的“FIFA高级官员”就是FIFA秘书长杰罗姆·瓦尔克(Jérôme Valcke)。这笔支付交易是上周指控沃纳的起诉书中的核心内容。沃纳被指控受贿并帮助南非获得了2010年的世界杯主办权。
The indictment does not say that the high-ranking official knew that the money was being used as a bribe and, unlike many other FIFA officials and marketing executives, Mr. Valcke is not identified as a co-conspirator in the document. Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of South Africa’s World Cup bid and the current president of its soccer federation, has said the money was not a bribe but a legitimate payment into a soccer development fund in the Caribbean.
起诉书中没有说这名高级官员知道这些钱被用作贿赂，此外，与其他许多FIFA官员和营销高管不同，瓦尔克在本案的材料中没有被列为本案同谋。南非世界杯组委会首席执行官丹尼·乔达安(Danny Jordaan)表示，这笔钱不是贿赂，而是给加勒比地区一个足球发展基金的合法付款。
Mr. Valcke, who said in a brief email that he had not authorized the payment and did not have the power to do so, has not been charged or accused of wrongdoing.
瓦尔克在一封简短的电子邮件中称，他并未批准这笔款项，而且也无权这么做。他尚未受到受到行为失当的指控或指责。
Mr. Valcke and Mr. Blatter are the two top officials in FIFA, an organization that has more than $1 billion in the bank and generates billions more each year. Mr. Valcke’s involvement is sure to raise more questions about what Mr. Blatter knew about the money transfer. The officials and others who identified Mr. Valcke spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
瓦尔克和布拉特是FIFA级别最高的两名官员。该组织拥有逾10亿美元银行存款，此外每年还能产生数十亿美元。瓦尔克的参与，必定会让人们对布拉特是否知晓前述资金转移产生更多疑问。由于无权讨论相关调查，指明瓦尔克身份的官员和其他人在匿名条件下发表了言论。
Mr. Valcke’s statement that he did not authorize the wire transfer does not directly address whether he was involved. The indictment says the unidentified official “caused” the payments to be made. And a spokeswoman for FIFA, Delia Fischer, said the chairman of the finance committee at the time, Julio Grondona, authorized the payment. Mr. Grondona died last year. Ms. Fischer said the payment was “executed in accordance with the Organisation Regulations.”
瓦尔克称自己没有授权电汇，但声明中并未直接表明自己是否曾参与此事。起诉书称，身份不明的官员“促成了”这笔款项的支付。FIFA女发言人德利娅·费希尔(Delia Fischer)称，批准这笔款项的是当时的财务委员会主席、已于去年过世的胡利奥·格龙多纳(Julio Grondona)。费希尔称，这笔钱是“在符合组织规程的情况下支付的”。
Those regulations say the secretary general is responsible for maintaining the organization’s accounts and has the authority to make transactions.
根据这些规程，打理FIFA账户是秘书长的职责，而且秘书长还有进行交易的权力。
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn brought charges last week against 14 soccer officials and marketing executives accused of corrupting FIFA, the governing body of international soccer. United States authorities have said more charges are expected and have promised to rid the organization of corruption.
上周，布鲁克林的联邦检察官对14名足球官员和营销高管提出指控，这些人涉嫌腐化国际足球运动的管理机构FIFA。美国官员曾表示还会有更多指控出现，并承诺要根除这个组织的腐败。
The $10 million payment, made in three wire transfers in January and March 2008, is described in the indictment in paragraph No. 192 and has prompted questions about which top FIFA executive was responsible. “Definitely that is not me,” Mr. Blatter said last week after he was re-elected as FIFA’s president and reporters asked if he was the unidentified official. “I have no $10 million.”
这笔1000万美元的款项，是在2008年1月到3月间通过三次电汇完成的。起诉书的第192段描述了此事，并使人们对哪位FIFA高管应对此事负责产生了疑问。“绝对不是我，” 布拉特在上周重新当选FIFA主席之后，被记者问到他是否是那位身份不明的官员时表示。“我没有1000万美元。”
The charges, which were unsealed last Wednesday morning in United States District Court in Brooklyn, coupled with the arrests at dawn of several high-ranking FIFA officials at a luxury hotel in Zurich, were stunning even by the standards of international soccer, which has been dogged by allegations of corruption for years. Swiss authorities also raided FIFA’s headquarters as part of a separate investigation into how FIFA chose the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
上周三上午，布鲁克林联邦地区法院(Federal District Court)公布了相关指控，还有几名高层FIFA官员于黎明时分在苏黎世的一家豪华酒店被捕。即便以国际足球的标准衡量，这些指控都令人震惊；数年来，国际足球一直深受腐败指控困扰。FIFA挑选2018年和2022年世界杯主办国的过程也被另案调查，瑞士当局为此突查FIFA总部。
Mr. Valcke, of France, has previously been involved in financial controversy. He joined FIFA in 2003 as its marketing director but was fired in December 2006 after a New York judge ruled that he and others lied repeatedly in negotiations with MasterCard and Visa over a sponsorship deal.
法国的瓦尔克此前曾因为财务问题陷入纠纷。2003年，他加入FIFA担任市场总监，但是于2006年12月被解雇。原因是一名纽约法官做出裁决，包括他在内的一些人在与万事达卡(MasterCard)和Visa卡就一项赞助协议进行谈判时曾反复撒谎。
“The fact cannot be overlooked that FIFA’s negotiations breached its business principles,” FIFA said in its news release at the time. “FIFA cannot possibly accept such conduct among its own employees.”
“FIFA的谈判违背了其商业原则，这个事实不容忽视，”FIFA在当时发布的新闻稿中说。“FIFA无法接受自己的工作人员存在这种行为。”
A federal appeals court threw out the ruling the next May. The next month, days after FIFA reached a settlement with MasterCard, Mr. Blatter chose Mr. Valcke to be secretary general, the organization’s No. 2 post. Mr. Valcke was never charged with a crime in that case.
次年5月，一个联邦上诉法庭推翻了此项裁决。接下来的一个月，在FIFA与万事达卡达成和解数日之后，布拉特选择瓦尔克作为秘书长——FIFA的二号职务。瓦尔克从未因为此案受到犯罪指控。
In an interview with the Sunday Independent, a South African newspaper, Mr. Jordaan said the timing of the payment proved that it could not have been a bribe. “How could we have paid a bribe for votes four years after we had won the bid?” he said.
在接受南非《星期日独立报》(Sunday Independent)采访时，乔达安说，这笔付款的时间证明，它不可能是行贿。他说，“我们怎么会在赢得主办权四年之后再去为了拉票而行贿呢？”
American prosecutors, however, say the bribery scheme played out over several years. In 2004, as FIFA’s executive committee considered where to host the 2010 World Cup, South Africa’s government agreed to pay Mr. Warner and others $10 million in exchange for their votes, according to the indictment.
然而，美国检方称，这场贿赂阴谋跨越了好几年。起诉书称，2004年FIFA执行委员会考虑2010年世界杯举办地时，南非政府同意支付沃尔纳等人1000万美元，以换取他们的投票支持。
Mr. Warner voted for South Africa, but in the months and years after the vote, South Africa was unable to pay. So rather than take a payment directly from South Africa, the indictment says, FIFA itself paid Mr. Warner in 2008, using money that would otherwise have gone to South Africa to support the World Cup.
沃尔纳把票投给了南非，但在投票后的数年里，南非一直未能支付这笔钱。起诉书称，沃尔纳没有从南非直接得到这笔钱，而是FIFA本身把钱给他的。这笔钱本来是要提供给南非，以支持其举办世界杯。
In effect, the indictment says the bribe was paid on the back end of the deal, so South Africa received $10 million less from FIFA than it otherwise would have.
起诉书称，实际上，这笔资金是在交易之后支付的，南非从FIFA获得的资金因此少了1000万美元。
Mr. Jordaan said the money was sent to the accounts of Concacaf, a FIFA entity that oversees soccer in North and Central America, as part of South Africa’s effort to support soccer there. Mr. Warner was Concacaf’s president at the time and controlled the accounts. Prosecutors say he took much of the $10 million for his personal use. Mr. Warner has maintained his innocence and said the United States brought the charges because it lost the bidding to host the 2022 World Cup.
乔达安说，这笔款项被存入中北美和加勒比地区足联(Concacaf)的账户，作为南非对当地足球事业的支持。中北美和加勒比地区足联是FIFA下属机构，管理着中北美洲足坛。沃尔纳当时是中北美和加勒比地区足联主席，管理着这些账户。检方称，沃尔纳个人使用了这1000万美元的很大一部分钱。沃尔纳坚称自己是无辜的，他说美国提出这些指控是因为它申办2022年世界杯失败了。
FIFA announced Monday that, “due to the current situation,” Mr. Valcke would not attend the opening of the Women’s World Cup in Canada next week. “It is important that he attends to matters at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich,” the organization said in a news release.
FIFA周一宣布，“由于目前的状况，”瓦尔克将不会参加下周在加拿大举行的女足世界杯开幕式。该组织在一份新闻通稿中说，“他需要处理FIFA在苏黎世总部的事务。”
