GENEVA: FIFA has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh's investigations agency to gather evidence following allegations that Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner offered $40,000 bribes to voters during its presidential campaign. FIFA said Friday that Freeh Group International Europe was “mandated” to help its ethics committee, which will summon the two suspended senior officials to a full inquiry expected to be held next month. “This company will work under the direct supervision and responsibility of Judge Robert T. Torres, member of the ethics committee who has been entrusted by the committee with supervising and directing the investigation,” FIFA said in a statement. Freeh founded FGI after leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993-2001. The Jersey City, New Jersey, native previously served six years as a special agent. His investigators' work will include interviewing Caribbean Football Union officials who allegedly were offered cash bribes at a meeting in Warner's native Trinidad to back Bin Hammam's FIFA presidential bid. Bin Hammam withdrew his candidacy last Sunday, hours before FIFA's ethics panel provisionally suspended him and FIFA vice president Warner pending the full hearing.
