Football federation president on the run with wife and son
Conviction in absentia of wide-ranging corruption charges
Authorities in Congo-Brazzaville have applied to Interpol for an international arrest warrant against Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas, the president of the country’s football federation, Fecofoot, after he was convicted of embezzling $1.1m in Fifa funds.
Mayolas is on the run with his wife and son after they were all sentenced to life imprisonment this month for embezzling funds provided by world football’s governing body as part of its Covid-19 relief plan in February 2021. As the Guardian revealed last year, that included almost $500,000 earmarked for the Congo women’s team.
Mayolas and his family were tried in absentia and are believed to have fled the country weeks before the hearing. Investigators suspect he may be hiding in Cameroon or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The authorities and partner police forces in the region have been alerted and officials are working with financial intelligence units, including Tracfin, the French financial intelligence unit, to freeze assets linked to the case.
