UEFA has hired a top economic crime expert from the US in the context of escalating legal tensions surrounding FIFA President Gianni Infantino's failed World Cup share sale plan.
Former chairman of the giant law firm Dechert in the US, Mr. Andrew Levander, has been recruited by the European football governing body. Levander has also informed FIFA based in Zurich that his client is "actively considering legal actions, commercial arbitration and/or complaints".
FIFA once promised that raising 4 billion USD from selling about 20% of shares in the Fifa Forward Enterprise project would help triple the payments for all 211 member federations, and asked them to vote on this plan in September.
However, after the details were leaked, the plan faced strong opposition, forcing Infantino to turn 180 degrees.
On Monday (August 3), a legal letter named 18 senior FIFA officials was revealed. The letter stated that legal procedures are "likely to take place" because Infantino's plan is accused of being "completely inconsistent with standard football governance".
Therefore, UEFA has requested officials named in the list to store all relevant documents and electronic exchanges.
The core of the dispute revolves around Fifa Forward Enterprise's 4.2 billion USD plan - a project heavily dependent on capital from Joshua Kushner's New York venture capital fund Thrive Capital.
According to Telegraph Sport, Kushner, Greg Maffei, JP Morgan and OpenEconomics have also received legal letters from UEFA lawyers.
UEFA chose a US law firm to create an advantage in jurisdiction for the investigation process as well as potential legal actions in this case.
Levander, a famous litigation lawyer in the US, regularly represents leading figures on Wall Street and global corporations, including former Barclays CEO Robert Diamond, former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, Lehman Brothers external directors, and Michael Rigas.
He also represented the Special Committee of the Apollo Board of Directors in the 2020-2021 investigation into the relationship between the founder and former CEO of Apollo and Jeffrey Epstein.
He has worked at the law giant BigLaw since 2005 and held the position of Chairman from 2011 to 2023 at the New York office of this law firm headquartered in Philadelphia.
This is not the first time FIFA has faced legal troubles on the other side of the Atlantic. The 2015 corruption scandal involved the US Department of Justice and the FBI, leading to the arrest and indictment of a series of FIFA officials for corruption.
