Twenty-four hours after Josimar revealed that Fifa’s new “prediction market” partner Adi Predictstreet was run by a man accused of insider trading, the Abu Dhabi firm appointed a CEO linked to ‘Qatargate’, one of the biggest lobbying scandals in the history of the EU Parliament.
By Martin Calladine, additional reporting by Philippe Auclair and Sam Kunti
It was a scandal that rocked the European parliament, the highest-decision making body on the continent, and is still working its way through the Belgian courts. Just days before host nation Qatar kicked off the 2022 World Cup against Ecuador, Eva Kaili, a vice president of the European Parliament and member of the Greek socialist party Pasok, was arrested by Belgian authorities on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation. Kaili and relatives were found in possession of over €1m in cash. Prosecutors pointed to Qatar: the Gulf nation allegedly wanted influence in the heart of Europe’s democracy and expected Kaili to defend the country’s human rights record ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Kaili has always maintained her innocence. She claimed the modus operandi was parliamentary diplomacy backed by private NGO funding.
In the spiralling investigation – which included allegations that Morocco and Mauritania had bribed some parliamentarians and targeted others – Dimitrios Psarrakis’s name got somewhat lost.
A Greek economist by background, he had worked for Kaili for eight years and, in 2021, the pair wrote and published
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