The ex-financial director of FIFA Markus Kattner denied on Tuesday to be the source of the Swiss prosecution in the case of alleged disloyal payment made in 2011 at the former Numéro 10 des Blues.
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His testimony was particularly expected, Tuesday, June 14, in the great hall of the Swiss Federal Criminal Tribunal (TPF) in Bellinzone. On the fifth day of the trial of Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter, the former financial director of the International Football Federation (FIFA) Markus Kattner was heard for forty minutes in an electric atmosphere.
Former zealous Lieutenant of Sepp Blatter (2003-2016), the Suisso-German at the Pélosse physique was not questioned on the substance of the case which applies to the former French president of the Union of Associations European football (UEFA) and the ex-boss of FIFA to appear for “suspicions of scam, unfair management, breach of confidence and false in the titles”. The judges only auditioned him on what makes the salt of this extended politico-judicial saga: the circumstances in which the public prosecutor of the Confederation (MPC) were windy of the alleged disloyal payment of two million Swiss francs (1 , 9 million euros) made, in February 2011, by Mr. Blatter to Mr. Platini.
According to ex-prosecutor Olivier Thormann, who testified at the helm on June 9, it was Mr. Kattner who would have “given him”, on May 27, 2015, during a search at the siege FIFA, in Zurich. That day, Mr. Kattner would have given him a “list” of payments made to members of the Executive Committee in 2010. “He told me that there was a payment which required a particular explanation, with a figure which Attided attention to others, “said Thormann, who opened the investigation into this payment and did not record this exchange with Mr. Kattner on the minutes in the criminal file.
Two divergent versions
At the bar, Mr. Kattner coldly challenged the version of Mr. Thormann. If he admitted to having “very quickly” delivered “a big file with documents” to the magistrate in the presence of FIFA lawyers, the former Grand Argentier of FIFA assured that he did not refer it to this payment, Neither have “given a specific information sheet”, nor makes “reference to a particular payment”.
“I was then convinced of the legality of payment, I would therefore not have had any reason to do so, said Kattner, dismissed in 2016 FIFA because of” breaches “. I worked Long with MM. Platini and Blatter and I did not feel that they were dishonest. “” I do not understand how, on the basis of such a large number of documents and data, this payment would have given rise to an initial suspicion, “insisted Mr. Kattner, who dictated the content of the famous invoice made by Mr. Platini, in January 2011, in which he demanded from FIFA the payment of two million Swiss francs.
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