A former international soccer bigwig and federal informant who helped land indictments against nearly a dozen corrupt officials in the global soccer organization once bought his cats a luxe apartment in Trump Tower, according to reports.
Chuck Blazer, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax evasion, racketeering and money laundering, helped Brooklyn federal prosecutors uncover what Attorney General Loretta Lynch called “rampant” and “deep-rooted” corruption and bribery within FIFA.
United States v. Charles Blazer
But behind the international intrigue was a deep love of his cats, according to a Daily News report.
When not zipping up and down Fifth Avenue on one of his luxury mobility scooters or jetting off to his homes in Miami and the Bahamas, the 450-pound Queens native took the time to let his feline friends in on the fruits of his corrupt FIFA labor, housing them in their own unit next to his opulent apartment overlooking Central Park, the News reported last year.
Blazer owned not one but two apartments on the 49th floor of the Trump Tower — renting one at $18,000 a month and the other unit, primarily for his pets, cost $6,000 a month, according to the report.
Blazer held various top-level positions at FIFA and CONCACAF, the soccer organization's branch in the Americas and the Caribbean, from 1996 to 2013.
Starting in 2011, Blazer worked as a cooperating witness for the FBI and IRS while they investigated FIFA executives’ corrupt activities in the Americas.
None of this was done out of the goodness of Blazer’s heart, though. After federal law enforcement agents discovered that Blazer had weaseled his way out of paying income taxes for over a decade, they threatened to prosecute Blazer and send him to jail. Blazer decided to cooperate.
In addition to pleading guilty, he also forfeited over $2 million, according to federal prosecutors.
Wednesday morning at a federal court in Brooklyn, the US Department of Justice unsealed a 47-count indictment against nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives, following what DOJ officials claim is 24 years and $150 million worth of corruption primarily in North and South America. No word yet on how their pets are responding to their owners’ arrests.
Blazer's lawyer did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
