The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said recently that it was monitoring the implications to banks in their territory named in the US Attorney Generals scathing report on the world football body. Over the weekend Japan was also dragged into the scandal after a Spanish sports daily said US$1.5 million was paid to the South American football confederation Conmebol in 2000 by a former JFA official.
As the fallout from the FIFA corruption scandal rolls on Swiss private bank Julius Baer, with strong business across the Asian region, has also reacted by freezing the accounts of several football officials as well as blocking credit cards linked to those accounts.
The blocked accounts are mainly those belonging individuals in the Confederations and their marketing associates, and not FIFA employees or elected officials based at the head office in Zurich.
In its indictment against those arrested in the police swoop on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich and the follow-up arrests of the sports marketing executives, the US Department of Justice mentioned the Swiss bank in two places.
A Julius Baer spokesman said that the bank had launched an internal investigation, and was cooperating fully with the authorities.
