Audit reveals that Bin Hammam enriched himself, family

(Trinidad Express) An audit by international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that Mohamed Bin Hammam, once a candidate to oust FIFA President Sepp Blatter as head of the world governing body for football, enriched himself and handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars to friends and relatives.
An Associated Press report last Friday stated that the audit also found that a US$250,000 payment was made to former FIFA vice president and Minister of National Security Jack Warner.
Bin Hammam, the 63-year-old Qatari whose life ban from football was overturned in a sports court last week, is accused of using the Asian Football Confederation bank accounts to conduct his private affairs.
The contents of the July 13 report were confirmed by two people with direct knowledge who spoke on condition of anonymity because it hasn’t been made public.
The report offered rare details of the usually secretive accounts of not-for-profit football bodies handling hundreds of millions of dollars. And it portrayed a man who was running Asian soccer like a family business, negotiating contracts on his own and mingling his personal and AFC bank accounts.
The audit was especially critical of bin Hammam’s use of AFC accounts for personal expenses, although there was no evidence of direct payments to bin Hammam.
“It is highly unusual for funds (especially in the amounts detailed here) that appear to be for the benefit of Mr Hammam personally, to be deposited to an organisation’s bank account,” the audit said.
He received millions of dollars from individuals linked to AFC contracts, according to the audit, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on items like a honeymoon for his son and dental work, haircuts and cash payments for his family.
It found he spent US$700,000 from AFC coffers on himself and his family, including US$100,000 for his wife, US$10,000 on a Bulgari watch for himself and nearly US$5,000 for his daughter’s cosmetic dentistry.
Payments were also made to Asian, African and Caribbean soccer officials, including US$250,000 to Jack Warner, the longtime strongman of Caribbean soccer.
Warner could not be immediately reached for comment on the audit yesterday.