Payments under scrutiny in the corruption investigations rocking Fifa at times made up almost a quarter of all deposits at a little-known bank’s Miami branch, according to reports filed with banking regulators.
Delta National Bank and Trust Company was used by Traffic International, the sports media company through which Brazilian businessman José Hawilla allegedly paid at least $60m in bribes to Fifa officials in exchange for sponsorships and television rights to football matches, according to a US indictment. Now that relationship is dragging Delta, a niche bank whose Miami branch is less than a mile from Traffic’s US office, into the global scandal surrounding the world’s most popular sport and highlighting the broader probe into the banks used by suspects in the investigation.
The sums passing through Traffic’s account played an outsized role at Delta’s Miami branch, according to the Department of Justice indictment and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reports.