NEW YORK: FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke has hired a prominent New York defense attorney in the face of corruption investigations that have roiled the world soccer body, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Barry Berke has been hired to represent Valcke, who is FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s top lieutenant.

Berke, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, most recently represented Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisers hedge fund. Steinberg was sentenced last year to 3-1/2 years in prison after being convicted of engaging in insider trading.

US prosecutors believe that Valcke was involved in $10 million in FIFA bank transactions that are a key part of the investigation, a source said in early June. He has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Valcke said last week that while he had signed off on the transactions he had done nothing wrong, adding that allegations against him were “insanity.”

Reuters reported earlier that Blatter has also hired a high-powered US lawyer to represent him, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Scandal surrender

In Buenos Aires, two Argentine businessmen wanted on US charges of bribing FIFA officials have surrendered, the justice ministry said Thursday.

Father and son marketing executives Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, the owners of sports marketing company Full Play, are among the 14 football officials and marketing executives indicted by the United States in a sweeping investigation into corruption at the heart of world football’s governing body.

The pair appeared early Thursday before a federal judge in Buenos Aires, the ministry said. They will remain in detention while the US request for their extradition is considered.

Argentine sports marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco turned himself in to police in Italy last week.

Full Play held the TV rights to the South American World Cup qualifying matches and is accused of bribing FIFA officials for multi-million-dollar contracts.

The company also co-owns the broadcast rights to the Copa America, the South American football championship currently being played in Chile, with Torneos y Competencias — run by Burzaco — and TrafficSports USA, run by Aaron Davidson, who was arrested in Switzerland last month.

The father-son duo co-owned another company involved in the case, Datisa, with Burzaco.

Compensation claim

Belgium’s football federation could seek compensation for the money spent on its unsuccessful bid for the 2018 World Cup if there evidence of criminal wrongdoing in FIFA’s choice of Russia as host.

Federation president Francois de Keersmaecker tells Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad that, “if fraud is proven, it is clear that we will ask for damages.”

On Wednesday, Switzerland’s attorney general detailed cases of possible money-laundering in his investigation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid contests.

Belgium bid jointly with the Netherlands for the 2018 tournament, finishing a distant third among four candidates in the vote of FIFA executive committee members.

Het Nieuwsblad says the Belgian federation spent 450,000 euros ($514,000) of Belgium’s total share of 4.5 million euro ($5.14 million) of the bid campaign.

De Keersmaecker says “the federation put a lot of money and effort in this.”