Rio de Janeiro: A World Cup ticketing excutive who fled a local hotel just before police arrived to detain him is not “a fugitive,” his company said.
The executive, Ray Whelan, is with his laywer, the Match company, which has close links to football’s governing body, FIFA, said. But it refused to say where he is.
Rio police said that Whelan was “a fugitive” after he left a back entrance of the luxury Copacabana Palace hotel on Thursday. They warned of new measures on Friday if Whelan tries to return to Britain.
Police sought Whelan, a director of Match Services, after a judge ordered him and 10 other suspects to be held in detention over ticket fraud alleged to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
His firm insisted that Whelan and his attorney Fernando Fernandes had not fled the hotel. (Reuters)
