A funny thing happened on the opening day of the Olympics ... Infantino cleared of ethics violations

FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, was cleared of ethics violations recently. But did the FIFA Ethics Committee forget something?

On the day before the Olympic Games began, the FIFA ethics committee got in touch with the FIFA media department with some good news. President Gianni Infantino had been cleared of ethics violations.

The downside for the media team was that there hadn’t actually been an announcement that Infantino was being formally investigated. But for the battle-scarred media department, an announcement on the day of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony – a Friday to boot – was perfect. It was textbook timing when you have to get news out without a big song and dance made of it.

The media team dutifully arranged a briefing for selected media by a longstanding ethics committee member, Judge Robert Torres of Guam. Then, job done, they hurried home to watch the Opening Ceremony in peace.

Investigation? What investigation?

Infantino had been secretly investigated by the ethics committee because of his refusal to sign a contract of remuneration, the lack of due process in hiring senior staff and alleged conflicts of interest in accepting gifts of flights in private aircraft. The complaints had been detailed in a leaked memo that was thought to have originated from FIFA HQ.

The clandestine investigation was led by Vanessa Allard, who was recommended for membership of the ethics committee by the former President of CONCACAF, Jeffrey Webb, in 2013. On a day-to-day basis, the Cayman Islands law firm where Ms Allard works deals with issues such as family law, personal injury matters, conveyancing and Probate.

Surprise! Allard concluded that most of the allegations against Infantino were internal, administrative matters that were not relevant to the committee.

However, she did feel the need to look into the use of private aircraft by Infantino. Perhaps he developed a taste for private jet set life during the Presidential campaign, because since becoming President he has used private aircraft to get to meetings and events in Russia, Qatar, Slovenia, Italy and return to Switzerland.

To the complainants, all of Infantino’s private flights raised alarm bells about conflict of interest and Articles 19, 20 and 21 of the FIFA ethics code.

You’re not going to believe this

But the private flight that raised the most attention - and was pivotal to Allard’s investigation - was the one that took Infantino, his wife and his mother on a return journey to visit the Pope. 

According to the complainants, the owner of the the aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 7X registration LX-USM, is Mr Alisher Usmanov who has a 30% ownership stake in England’s Arsenal Football Club.

Inside LX-USM which is now for sale for US$31.75 million, slashed from $32.5 million since June!

No doubt keen to take the focus off his private Papal visit, Infantino said the complainants were wrong. He told the ethics committee that the aircraft is owned by Mr Leon Semenenko, a friend who happened to have purchased it from Usmanov in 2014.

The FIFA ethics committee was apparently satisfied with this. Judge Torres told the media in his briefing that:

“The indirect ties of the relationship between Mr Semenenko and Mr Usmanov were not sufficiently close enough to be considered in the light of the 'conflict of interest' principle.” 

Well that’s alright then!

Alisher Usmanov has been in favour in President Putin’s Russia ever since he almost singlehandedly wrested-back stripped assets to the state in the early 2000s as head of Gazprominvest Holdings, a position he held until 2014.

Now look at what he owns!

Usmanov is the controlling power in USM Holdings along with Vladimir Skoch and Farhad Moshiri. Usmanov, Skoch, Moshiri = USM. (Moshiri owns 49.9% of Everton Football Club).

USM Holdings owns several companies such as Metalloinvest (mega mining and metals), Kommersant (huge media), Megafon (huge telecommunications), Mail.ru (huge internet) to name just a few.

At least least some of USM’s commercial interests are helpfully listed in the Panama Papers. USM and its group of companies use the Isle of Man’s Bridgewater Limited as an intermediary which, in turn, was a client of Mossack Fonseca.

Their interests are not limited to Russia. USM also has interests in companies such as AirBnB, Uber and Spotify.

Usmanov owns Russia’s largest privately-owned jet, an Airbus A340 named Bourkhan after his father, which he bought in 2012. He purchased his Hampstead Heath London home in 2008 for £48 million from none other than the previous Emir of Qatar.

His interests in sport are broad and are mostly pursued through his Moscow-based Arts and Sports Charity Foundation. Usmanov was an Uzbeki national fencer, is the longstanding President of the International Fencing Federation, and a supporter of the Russian Olympic committee.

Arsenal is not Usmanov’s only football interest

Through the Arts and Sports Charity Foundation, he was one of the key financial backers of the Russia 2018 World Cup Bid. Russia famously won the 2018 tournament in just two rounds of voting.

The Foundation continues to support the Russia 2018 World Cup organising committee.

Did the ethics committee close the case file too soon?

It turns out that the transaction involving the aircraft LX-USM is not the only one between Usmanov and Semenenko.

Who is Leon Semenenko?

In the words of Usmanov’s USM Holdings, Semenenko is “an independent fund manager who has long worked with Alisher Usmanov as a partner on joint deals”.  Their relationship dates back at least as far as Usmanov’s days as head of Gazprominvest Holdings.

In 2012, Semenenko purchased a stake in an Australian biotech company through the British Virgin Islands. Reports speculated that Usmanov was bankrolling the investment, because Semenenko had been a director of multiple companies that were written-off investments of Usmanov companies. 

In 2013 Semenenko attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2014, in his capacity as Senior Executive Advisor to the CEO of USM’s Metalloinvest.

Later in 2014, when Semenenko bought a bank – now known as the Round Bank - guess who sold it to him? Usmanov and Skoch. 

This was about the same time Semenenko bought the aircraft from Usmanov in which the Infantino’s travelled to see the Pope.

The same aircraft was seen at Zurich Airport in January 2015 and logged by a Swiss plane spotter as being flown-in by a Davos attendee. Semenenko didn’t go to Davos that year. Usmanov did.

Perhaps Semenenko loaned it to someone else for the week.

Only last month, a partnership between Semenenko’s Round Bank and USM’s Megafon was announced - via USM’s Kommersant - for a branded credit and debit card.  

Semenenko knows the other USM owners too

Semenenko, Skoch and Moshiri have held several directorships together; and, courtesy of the Panama Papers, we know that Semenenko also uses the same Bridgewater IOM intermediary as USM Holdings.

What’s going on inside the ethics committee?

Some reports suggest the head of the ethics committee’s investigatory chamber, Cornel Borbely, is not happy with the outcome on the Infantino investigation. The policy of the ethics committee is for an investigator not to share the nationality of the person being investigated; Borbely’s hands are tied due to his shared Swiss nationality with Infantino.

There is also a view that the ethics committee felt compelled to make a decision in favour of Infantino because of the power he sequestered for himself at the May Congress to sack any or all of them.

Infantino’s hand-picked CEO sacked two FIFA senior managers for daring to raise their concerns to the ‘independent’ ethics committee. How it became known that the two, Severin Podolak and Christoph Schmidt, had raised these issues with the committee in the first place is a cause for concern. They ought to have been entitled to anonymity.

It is another example of how the FIFA ethics committee has failed the very people they should protect – remember the Eckert Report? - and yet another reminder that not much has changed at FIFA in terms of reform, other than some easy measures around the edges to keep the Swiss and US authorities temporarily at bay.  

The FIFA Ethics Committee may see the ties that bind Usmanov and Semenenko as ‘indirect’. Many wouldn’t. Their relationship has longevity; it is enduring and it is fiduciary.

Plus ça change.

Cover photograph by Florian Resech.