How Brit spy behind Donald Trump’s ‘dirty dossier’ took down FIFA boss Sepp Blatter after being hired by FA to probe Russia World Cup hosting scandal
THE former British spy reportedly behind Trump’s ‘dirty dossier’ helped take down FIFA boss Sepp Blatter after he was employed by the FA to investigate Russia’s controversial 2018 World Cup bid.
Christopher Steele, 52, commissioned by the Football Association in 2010 to investigate corruption within FIFA as part of England’s flopped 2018 bid, reports the Times.
His London-based firm Orbis Business Intelligence reportedly raked in over £1million in two years providing information on the ‘systemic’ corruption within world football’s governing body to the FBI.
This week, the former MI6 agent was named as the author of the widely discredited document which featured lurid claims about President-elect Trump.
But Steele’s dossier was considered credible by the US intelligence services because of his work uncovering the snake pit within FIFA.
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In the summer of 2010, a New York-based FBI squad met with the former spook at his London office, reports Reuters.
Sources close to Steele have confirmed that he was directly hired by the Football Association in England to investigate the governing body.
In December 2010, amid rampant rumours of corruption, the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.
And with the help of Russian-speaking spook Steele, the FBI were able to indict a number of high-ranking FIFA officials.
President Blatter was forced to resign from his post and later admitted that the World Cup was always "destined for Russia".
Steele’s business boomed as a result of his work with the FBI recording profits of £401,000 in 2015 and £621,000 in 2016.
He was then commissioned by a Washington-based research firm to investigate Trump’s ties with Russia, according to the BBC’s Paul Wood writing in the Spectator.
Described as a 'confirmed socialist' while a student, Steele was formerly the president of the esteemed Cambridge Union debating society before joining the Foreign Office in 1986.
But he went to ground “in fear of his life” as the report allegedly provided by him caused a political earthquake.
Tensions rose last night as Moscow publicly blamed MI6 for the dossier.
The Russian embassy in London posted a sinister tweet suggesting Steele was still working for MI6 and “briefing both ways” against Trump and Moscow.
The tweet declared: “MI6 officers are never ex.” An embassy spokesman said the tweet “reflected the mood in Russia”.
There have been claims that Steele is in an MI6 safe house.
He is said to have fled as the furore broke on Wednesday, telling neighbours: “Look after my cat.”
He left so quickly that he appeared to have left the lights on at the home.
His disappearance came as furious MI6 chiefs distanced themselves from him for dragging them into the scandal.
They have told ministers he showed “appalling judgement” over the incident.
Steele, 52, and business partner and fellow ex-spook Christopher Burrows, 58, both own 50 per cent stakes in the OBI’s parent company Orbis Business International and describe themselves as political consultants in the Companies House documents.
Steele’s career has helped to fund a luxurious £1.4million home in Surrey which he bought with second wife Katherine in July 2013.
His first wife Laura died at 43 in 2009 after battling cirrhosis of the liver.
He was first posted to the UK embassy in Moscow in 1990 and spent nearly 20 years as one of MI6’s top Russia specialists before leaving to set up on his own.
The dossier alleged there was “an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit”.
A fuming Trump suggested US secret services engineered the leak to damage his reputation.
It is feared the allegations could make Trump a blackmail puppet of Vladimir Putin.
The Sun learned last night Steele was briefed on the Kremlin’s use of hidden spy cameras by murdered Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko.
Sources said he met Litvinenko several times in London before the defector was killed by radioactive tea at a Mayfair hotel in 2006.
In 1999, when Litvinenko worked for Russian intelligence, prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov was filmed with hookers. Vladimir Putin used the tape to blackmail him.
A source said: “He was debriefing Litvinenko and passing on the information back to bosses at MI6.”
Steele’s father-in-law David Hunt, 78, from Newbury, Berks, said: “I have not spoken to him since before Christmas. I’m worried. We’re watching the news. Chris never spoke about his job.”
A senior intelligence source told The Sun: “If he’s behind it, Chris should never have accepted this work.
“It was always going to come out and it is deeply embarrassing to the service.”
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