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WORK TITLE: Red Card
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: two.
EDUCATION:Duke University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and journalist. BuzzFeed News, investigative journalist, 2014—. Worked for newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
AWARDS:ASME National Magazine Award; Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Finance & Business Reporting; Pulitzer Prize finalist in national reporting.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ken Bensinger is a writer and investigative journalist with more than twenty years of experience as a reporter. He has worked for major newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He is currently a member of the investigations team of BuzzFeed News, where he has written pieces on sports, politics, labor, and multiple other topics. He has won the National Magazine award of the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Finance & Business Reporting. He has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting, noted a writer on the Simon and Schuster website.
Bensinger writes in depth about one of the biggest scandals in the field of sports in his book Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal. FIFA is the world-renowned governing body of international football, more commonly known in the United States as soccer. The organization is in charge of the rules and conduct in soccer matches around the world. It controls vast amounts of money and holds significant power in an area of athletics that is beloved in many countries. Unfortunately, FIFA and other organizations, such as CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, has been shown to be as thoroughly corrupt as they are powerful. In Red Card, Bensinger explores in tremendous detail the “U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into corruption at the highest levels of international soccer,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
Bensinger writes about the level of corruption that has plagued the sport of soccer for decades. He gives a comprehensive account of the origins of the investigation covered in his book and how authorities managed to make the necessary connections with the right people involved in the scandal. He shows how multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the IRS, and the Swiss police, arrested large numbers of high-ranking individuals who had gathered in Zurich for elections for FIFA. In the end, many of the most prominent individuals involved in international soccer were arrested and brought to justice in one of the largest and most successful corruption investigations in sports history.
Red Card “delivers an engrossing and jaw-dropping tale of international intrigue culminating in dozens of individuals and companies associated with professional soccer being brought to justice,” commented Jonathan A. Knee, writing in the New York Times. Throughout his account, Bensinger “manages to give a mind-bogglingly complex cast of characters and time lines the pace and plot of a crackling whitecollar-crime thriller,” remarked Booklist contributor Kier Graff. A writer in Kirkus Reviews concluded that Bensinger’s book is a “deeply forensic investigation of the depth of corruption within FIFA and its regional bodies that also shows how much work goes into high-level criminal investigations.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2018, Keir Graff, review of Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal, p. 58.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2018, review of Red Card.
New York Times, June 13, 2018, Jonathan A. Knee, “Review: Red Card Tells a Tale With Parallels to the Russia Investigation.”
Publishers Weekly, April 30, 2018, review of Red Card, p. 55.
ONLINE
Simon & Schuster website, http://www.simonandschuster.com/ (July 9, 2018), biography of Ken Bensinger.
Ken Bensinger
Ken Bensinger has been a journalist for more than twenty years. He has worked at The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and, since 2014, for BuzzFeed News, as a member of its investigations team, and has written about sports, labor, art, automobiles, and politics, among other topics. He has been a winner of the ASME National Magazine award and the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Finance & Business Reporting, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting. He grew up in Seattle, graduated from Duke University, and lives with his wife, two children, and dog, in Los Angeles. Red Card is his first book.
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Print Marked Items
Bensinger, Ken: RED CARD
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Bensinger, Ken RED CARD Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 6, 12 ISBN: 978-1-5011-3390-9
Investigating and prosecuting corruption in the world's most popular sport.
On May 27, 2015, after several years of slow, meticulous investigation on the part of a number of agencies,
most notably the American FBI and IRS, Swiss police conducted sweeping arrests of large numbers of
high-ranking functionaries gathered for elections for Zurich-based FIFA, world soccer's governing body.
Corruption across the sport has been endemic for decades, and in this fine, deeply researched, painstakingly
assembled book, BuzzFeed News investigative reporter Bensinger shows how American agencies homed in
on corruption within CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the
Caribbean. Fortunately, the narrative is not as ham-handed as the subtitle, which turns the years of
investigation into some sort of simplistic nationalist triumph. Working diligently for years, FBI and IRS
officials revealed patterns of corruption--bribery, graft, outright theft--much of which passed through
American banks and other institutions and which amounted, in their estimation, to racketeering. A focus on
the two highest-ranking CONCACAF officials--the deeply compromised American Chuck Blazer and
Trinidadian Jack Warner--expanded to include a large swath of FIFA's hierarchy, especially in North,
Central, and South America and the Caribbean. The book is deeply sourced. However, because of
Bensinger's reliance on hundreds of hours of interviews with anonymous sources, it is somewhat thinly
documented, and readers will have to trust the force of the argument and the mountains of clear evidence
(as well as the successful prosecutions). As the author notes, "the saga of corruption within FIFA and
worldwide soccer as a whole is immeasurably complicated." Perhaps most shocking is that there is little
evidence that FIFA and organizations such as CONCACAF have really cleaned up their acts.
A deeply forensic investigation of the depth of corruption within FIFA and its regional bodies that also
shows how much work goes into high-level criminal investigations.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Bensinger, Ken: RED CARD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534375168/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=48d36bc1.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534375168
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Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle
on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal
Keir Graff
Booklist.
114.17 (May 1, 2018): p58.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal.
By Ken Bensinger.
June 2018. 352p. illus. Simon & Schuster, $28 (9781501133909); e-book, $14.99 (9781501133923).
796.3340601.
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? With mere weeks to go before the 2018 World Cup kicks off in
Russia, consider this account of the shocking corruption scandal that engulfed global soccer after the May
2015 arrests in Switzerland of top officials, sports marketers, and others. Writing with deep inside
knowledge of the key players and events in the U.S.-led investigation, veteran journalist Bensinger manages
to give a mind-bogglingly complex cast of characters and time lines the pace and plot of a crackling whitecollar-crime
thriller. Other books have preceded it, notably David Conn's The Fall of the House of FIFA
(2017), but this one proves well worth the wait, lending nuance and understanding to a tale of greed and
venality that grows no less jaw-dropping over time. Leaders of regional soccer associations conspired with
sports-marketing firms and demanded ever-increasing bribes for TV and other rights to tournaments (Gold
Cup, Copa America, etc.) while avoiding taxes, living in luxury, and ensuring that little of the cash river
ever trickled down to neighborhood playing fields. Six- and seven-figure bribes, a sports-marketing
company that "literally bribed itself into insolvency," and more and more-- all culminating in a U.S. RICO
indictment on the grounds that "soccer itself had become a corrupt criminal enterprise." And as for the
allegations that FIFA delegates were bribed to vote for host countries South Africa, Russia, and Qatar?
Utterly true--and yet the games go on. It may be a beautiful game on the field, but in the backrooms and
boardrooms, it's downright disgusting. Anyone seeking crystal-clear understanding of the rot in soccer can
start with this remarkable book.--Keir Graff
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Graff, Keir. "Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal." Booklist, 1
May 2018, p. 58. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A539647354/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9cb9d804. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A539647354
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Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle
on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal
Publishers Weekly.
265.18 (Apr. 30, 2018): p55+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal
Ken Bensinger. Simon & Schuster, $28
(352p) ISBN 978-1-5011-3390-9
In his intense first book, investigative journalist Bensinger explores the U.S. Department of Justice's
investigation into corruption at the highest levels of international soccer. The story begins with a 2011
Google alert received by Steve Berryman, an Internal Revenue Service special agent and zealous soccer fan,
about high-ranking FIFA official Chuck Blazer--an American whose financial records were under
examination by the FBI. With that tip, Berryman teamed with FBI agents to go after Blazer, who, facing
significant federal charges, eventually became the government's most helpful cooperator in the
investigation. Bensinger colorfully details the global pursuit of Blazer's cronies that climaxed in May 2015,
when several FIFA officials were arrested for allegedly accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes
to influence the selection of host countries for the World Cup. Among those arrested were Jack Warner, a
cocky yet quiet Trinidadian who was president of the Confederation of North, Central America and
Caribbean Association Football, and his successor, Jeffrey Webb, a Caymanian with five homes in the U.S.
and aspirations of becoming president of FIFA. A total of 18 people were indicted, and the fallout from the
scandal included the resignation of FIFA's longtime president, Sepp Blatter. With the flair of a novelist,
Bensinger meticulously chronicles the magnitude of corruption that permeates the world's most popular
sport. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal." Publishers Weekly, 30
Apr. 2018, p. 55+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537852304/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bc819578. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537852304
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Review: 'Red Card' Tells a Tale With Parallels to the Russia Investigation
Jonathan A. Knee
The New York Times. (June 13, 2018): Business News: pNA(L).
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com
Full Text:
''Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal,'' by the BuzzFeed investigative reporter Ken Bensinger, delivers an engrossing and jaw-dropping tale of international intrigue culminating in dozens of individuals and companies associated with professional soccer being brought to justice.
The story of FIFA corruption has eerie parallels to the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russia's election interference. Ex-spy Christopher Steele, whose explosive dossier has made him an unexpected household name, turns up in an important supporting role, as do a wide range of shady Russian oligarchs and government officials. Members of this latter group worked to subvert the integrity of FIFA, the world soccer governing body at the heart of the scandal, for their own ends. They then quietly helped those who were charged avoid the reach of United States justice. And for some strange reason, corrupt individuals and organizations just seem to gravitate to Trump Tower as their preferred home base -- in this instance sometimes enjoying a special cut-rate rent deal courtesy of our now president.
Lurking in the background remains Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. While Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, Prince William and the soccer star David Beckham aggressively lobbied FIFA's governing body at Zurich's magnificent Baur au Lac hotel ahead of the fateful 2010 vote awarding the 2018 and 2020 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, Mr. Putin kept a respectful distance. FIFA officials should be allowed to ''make their decision in peace without any outside pressure,'' he told the press in explaining his absence. In fact, since Russia had already purchased the prize, there was little point in ponying up for the additional travel expenses.
Not to diminish Mr. Bensinger's achievement in producing such a riveting book, but the story had certain built-in advantages. How often is a writer handed a central protagonist in a crime drama in the form of a 450-pound diabetic who moves around on a small army of scooters with a pet parrot on his shoulder? Chuck Blazer, who was raised in Flushing, Queens, never played soccer and started out hawking T-shirts and Frisbees. But he became the general secretary of the FIFA regional association that stretched from North America through the Caribbean. Mr. Blazer's engaging personality, combined with marketing and political savvy, endeared him to a wide range of leaders both within and outside the world of soccer. Donald Trump not only gave Mr. Blazer a deal on his rent, he let him hold his high school reunion in the glittering lobby of Trump Tower. These personal qualities made Mr. Blazer particularly valuable once he became the first key cooperating witness for the F.B.I.
A fundamental problem with many white-collar-crime dramas is the often technical and unintuitive nature of the underlying misconduct. Collusion and insider trading, for example, can be illegal under surprisingly narrow circumstances. Luckily for both Mr. Bensinger and the reader, the FIFA scandal involved old-fashioned and highly intuitive vote buying, bribery, payoffs and kickbacks on a breathtaking scale. Such corruption makes for a particularly gripping narrative.
Prosecutors, however, did grapple with highly complex technical questions. Here, however, they were related more often to jurisdictional issues than to substantive law. Mr. Blazer's decision, for example, to deposit one of his payoffs directly at his Merrill Lynch brokerage next door to Trump Tower rather than mail it as usual to his bank in the Caymans proved particularly fateful.
The one major issue of substantive law raised by the case was the decision to apply the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which was originally designed for prosecuting organized crime. A major advantage of charging RICO in addition to garden-variety crimes is that it gives prosecutors wide authority to seek forfeiture of assets. In the end, these successful investigations and prosecutions have already yielded hundreds of millions in proceeds to the government.
The former F.B.I. director James Comey, who makes a cameo appearance in ''Red Card,'' recently observed in his memoir, ''A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,'' that our president is disposed toward organizational structures that are reminiscent of La Cosa Nostra. The Democratic National Committee has filed a civil RICO case against the Trump campaign. And who knows what will turn up in the materials obtained in the recent raid on the office of Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, a former senior Trump Organization executive?
Before targeting FIFA and its regional confederation as an enterprise ''engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering, in pursuit of personal and commercial gain,'' federal prosecutors had an uneven track record in applying RICO outside of mob settings and were often reluctant to do so. Based on the success of the soccer investigations so far, and with the FIFA and special counsel inquiries continuing, we may be poised for a significant renaissance in RICO-inspired prosecutions.
Jonathan A. Knee is professor of professional practice at Columbia Business School and a senior adviser at Evercore Partners. His latest book is ''Class Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education.''
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Knee, Jonathan A. "Review: 'Red Card' Tells a Tale With Parallels to the Russia Investigation." New York Times, 13 June 2018, p. NA(L). General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A542366334/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6c56e9e9. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A542366334