You may have heard about the FIFA corruption scandal in the last few days. Before all this started, Chuck Blazer pleaded guilty in 2013 after a 10-count charge that included racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and income tax evasion. From April 1990 until December 2011, Mr. Blazer served as general secretary, or second in command, of the soccer governing body known as Concacaf, which governs the North American, Central American and Caribbean region. From 1997 until 2013, he was a member of the executive committee of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
What we didn’t know was that he was also hoarding American Express Membership Rewards points. He was just generously letting his friends use his personal Amex credit card.
From 2004 to 2011, more than $26 million of Concacaf expenses were charged to Blazer’s personal American Express account, resulting in a commingling of personal and business charges, the report said. This was done, the report said, perhaps because “Blazer had easier access to credit than did Concacaf” or because of “Blazer’s desire to accumulate American Express membership reward points.”
We don’t know what tupe of Amex card Blazer had, but that should be a whole lot of MR points. He sure made good use of his points and the Amex travel partners. Mr. Blazer kept a blog, called “Travels With Chuck Blazer and his Friends,” where photos showed him dressed in a Santa outfit and posing with luminaries including Miss Universe, Putin and Nelson Mandela.
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