WESTBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — About $20 million in cash that was hidden inside a box spring in a Massachusetts apartment has been seized as part of a wide-ranging investigation into an internet telecom company that was actually a massive international pyramid scheme, federal prosecutors said. 
 
 The cash was found Wednesday inside a Westborough apartment by investigators who had tailed a Brazilian man from New York. That man, Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, 28, was charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and was held after an appearance in federal court Thursday pending a detention hearing scheduled for next week. His lawyer could not immediately be reached. 
 
 The cash seizure was made in connection with an investigation into TelexFree, a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company that purportedly sold VOIP telephone service. 
 
 TelexFree had few customers and made most of its revenue from people buying into the company with a promise of payouts for posting online ads for it, prosecutors have said. They were paid with money from new recruits, often friends and family of earlier investors. 
 
 Although initially aimed at Brazilian immigrants to Massachusetts, authorities allege almost 1 million people worldwide were swindled out of nearly $1.8 billion. 
 
 TelexFree filed for bankruptcy in 2014, its assets frozen, and its two principals were indicted on federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. 
 
 One of them, former chief executive James Merrill, pleaded guilty in October and awaits sentencing on Feb. 2. 
 
 The other, Carlos Wanzeler, fled to his native Brazil where he remains, U.S. prosecutors said. 
 
 Rocha was part of a scheme to transfer millions of dollars of hidden TelexFree assets to Brazil by laundering the cash through Hong Kong, prosecutors said. 
 
 According to court documents, Rocha, acting as a courier for Wanzeler's nephew, flew from Brazil to New York City a few days ago. Rocha then met with a cooperating witness at a restaurant in Hudson, Massachusetts, and gave him a suitcase containing $2.2 million. 
 
 After the meeting, agents followed Rocha to the Westborough apartment and later arrested him. ||||| BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Thursday announced that about $20 million found under a mattress in a Massachusetts apartment had been seized after a Brazilian man was arrested for laundering money linked to a multi-billion-dollar global fraud. 
 
 Federal prosecutors in Boston charged Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, 28, with conspiring to commit money laundering in a case connected to the investigation of TelexFree Inc, which promoted itself as an internet telecom company but prosecutors say was actually a pyramid scheme. 
 
 Rocha was detained following a court hearing, prosecutors said. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The arrest stemmed from an investigation into TelexFree, a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company that sold voice-over-internet telephone service and was founded by James Merrill, a U.S. citizen, and Carlos Wanzeler, a Brazilian. 
 
 Prosecutors said TelexFree was a massive pyramid scheme, making little to no money selling its service while taking in millions of dollars from thousands of people who paid to sign up to be “promoters” and post ads online for it. 
 
 TelexFree filed for bankruptcy in April 2014 owing $5 billion to its participants, prosecutors said. In total, 965,225 victims in the United States, Brazil and various other countries lost $1.76 billion when it collapsed, they said. 
 
 Merrill was arrested in May 2014 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges in October. Wanzeler in 2014 fled to Brazil and could not be extradited. 
 
 According to Thursday’s criminal complaint, in 2015, an individual working on Wanzeler’s nephew’s behalf approached a cooperating witness about laundering money still in the United States through Hong Kong accounts and moving the funds to Brazil. 
 
 The intermediary told the witness that she wanted $40 million transferred out of the country because Wanzeler’s wife, still in the United States, was filing for divorce and knew where it was located, the complaint said. 
 
 On Dec. 31, Rocha, acting as a courier for Wanzeler’s nephew, flew to the United States and subsequently met on Wednesday with the cooperating witness, whom he gave $2.2 million in a suitcase, according to authorities. 
 
 After the meeting, federal agents followed Rocha to an apartment complex in Westborough, Massachusetts. 
 
 They returned to it after arresting Rocha to find a “substantial amount of cash” hidden under a mattress, the complaint said. Rocha said the money totaled $20 million, the complaint said. 
 
 Wanzeler’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The case is U.S. v. Rocha, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 17-mj-05007. ||||| Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings into FIFA's awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, after seven soccer officials were arrested pending extradition to the U.S. in a separate probe of "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted"corruption. (AP) 
 
 The international investigation into bribery, fraud and corruption at FIFA involved some surprising American names: The Miami chairman of a popular nationwide soccer league, and a major U.S. sportswear firm some believe could be Nike. 
 
 For more than two decades, the Justice Department said Wednesday, five "unscrupulous" U.S. and South American sports and banking executives helped funnel more than $150 million in bribes to officials atop FIFA, the multibillion-dollar goliath governing the world's most popular sport. 
 
 The indictment also alleges bribes were paid and pocketed in connection with the sponsorship of the Brazilian national soccer team by "a major U.S. sportswear company." Although investigators will not name the company, the indictment says the sportswear firm signed a 10-year, $160 million sponsorship deal with the Brazilian team in 1996, closely matching Nike’s clothes, shoes and equipment deal with the team that year. 
 
 The indictment alleges a sportswear-company official agreed three days later to allow Traffic Brazil, a sports marketing company, to charge additional "marketing fees." Traffic then invoiced the company for tens of millions of dollars more in payments over the next three years that investigators say were bribes. 
 
 [U.S.: Indictments are just the start of FIFA scrutiny] 
 
 Nike's current contract, which expires in 2018, includes $34 million a year in payments to the team, the fourth-largest uniform deal in international soccer, and the Oregon-based mega-firm's Swoosh logo sits on every Brazilian player's outfit. 
 
 The Brazilian sponsorship deal helped transform Nike from a brand mostly known for running and basketball shoes into a global sports giant. Nike’s soccer revenue surpassed $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2014, up from $40 million in 1994. 
 
 A Nike representative said in a statement that the firm is "concerned by the very serious allegations ... and strongly opposes any form of manipulation or bribery," adding that the company is cooperating with the authorities. 
 
 Nike investors seemed to shrug off the issue, sending the $88 billion giant's stock falling less than 1 percent. Even if Nike was implicated, analysts expected it would have minimal impact on the Big Swoosh. 
 
 "What fans or consumers are going to be much more concerned about is doping of athletes, fixing of matches, that kind of thing," said Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst for NPD Group. “I think they couldn’t care less who paid whom for what marketing deal.” 
 
 [The human toll of FIFA’s corruption] 
 
 The broader corruption charges allege the five U.S. and South American businessmen pocketed kickbacks in exchange for media rights and marketing deals tied to some of soccer's most profitable games. 
 
 Investigators said they acted secretly, hatching intricate money laundering schemes, smuggling cash and wiring tens of millions of dollars through offshore accounts from the Cayman Islands to Hong Kong. 
 
 Besides the nine FIFA officials, sports-marketing executives Alejandro Burzaco, Aaron Davidson, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis were indicted on charges of racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and a host of other charges tied to years of “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted" corruption, as Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch called them. 
 
 The Post's Marissa Payne details the charges facing nine FIFA officials in a round of indictments from the U.S., and delves into why FIFA's president Sepp Blatter is not facing charges. (Editor's note: This video reports that Jeffrey Webb is FIFA's vice president. FIFA has more than one vice president.) (Nicki DeMarco and Marissa Payne/The Washington Post) 
 
 The executives are accused of serving as middlemen between FIFA and its six continental confederations, who make most of their money selling media and marketing rights to popular matches, and the legion of TV and radio networks, corporate sponsors and other licensees, who want to broadcast the games or promote their brands. 
 
 By bribing corrupt FIFA officials with more than $150 million since 1991, the Justice Department said, the marketing executives secured themselves lucrative multiyear contracts. 
 
 [How FIFA became the world’s most powerful and loathed sports organization] 
 
 About $4 billion of FIFA's $5.7 billion in revenue between 2011 and 2014 came from contracts for TV and marketing rights for the 2014 World Cup, the Justice Department said. 
 
 Several prominent South American business leaders were charged in the investigation of what Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation chief Richard Weber called "the World Cup of fraud." 
 
 Burzaco, 50, is the chief executive of Torneos y Competencias S.A. (Tournaments and Competitions), an Argentinean sports broadcast firm that runs pay-TV channels, such as TyC Sports, and owns the rights to air key soccer matches, including World Cup qualifiers. 
 
 Hugo Jinkis, 70, and his son Mariano Jinkis, 40, were the president and vice president of Full Play Group S.A., an Argentinean sports-marketing agency that holds the TV rights to many South American games. 
 
 [Graphic: Charges in the FIFA corruption case] 
 
 José Margulies, 75, the controlling principal of Valente Corp. and Somerton Ltd., was also accused of helping coordinate the illegal payments between the executives and officials. 
 
 The lone American executive charged so far is Aaron Davidson, 44, the president of Traffic Sports USA, a Miami-based arm of the Traffic Group, a Brazilian sports marketing conglomerate. 
 
 Davidson is chairman of the board of the North American Soccer League (NASL), and Traffic Sports USA owns stakes in several of its regional soccer franchises, including the Atlanta Silverbacks and the Carolina RailHawks, and a former stake in the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. 
 
 Davidson spoke for the company in media interviews as recently as last week's Sport Innovation Summit in Mexico City. 
 
 Registered in Miami since 1990, Traffic Sports USA is headquartered in a glitzy office tower, Courvoisier Centre, on the gated island of Brickell Key, state business records show. The firm's office line in Miami gave no answer Wednesday. 
 
 In 2012, the company won a massive marketing contract with FIFA to manage two mega-popular soccer tournaments for the U.S.-based soccer confederation, CONCACAF: the 2013 Gold Cup and 2015 Champions League. 
 
 Davidson said at the time that the company was "honored to have been selected by CONCACAF to represent these prestigious competitions,” and added that “being based in South Florida over the past 21 years has been very strategic and advantageous for us." 
 
 How firms like the Traffic Group allegedly kept bribes pumping play out over the court records of José Hawilla, the firm's 71-year-old Brazilian founder. In December, Hawilla pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice, agreeing to forfeit more than $151 million, including $25 million on the spot. 
 
 [FIFA indictments: Questions and answers] 
 
 Founded in Sao Paulo in 1980, the privately held Traffic Group focused on the "commercialization of soccer" through buying and selling media rights such as field branding, sponsorship deals and licensed merchandise. In a 2011 lawsuit, Traffic Sports International described itself as "one of the leading sports event and management companies in the world." 
 
 Traffic International funneled bribes extensively, investigators said: In five payments starting in 2010, for rights tied to the 2011 Copa America, the firm wired $22 million that bounced between a Miami bank, a Banco de Brasil in New York, and an account in Asuncion, Paraguay. 
 
 Federal investigators said Hawilla and his co-conspirators did nearly everything to conceal their scheme, including tapping a Swiss bank account, trusted financial advisers and currency dealers to help hide illegal payments. They also created shell companies and bank accounts in tax havens and secretive jurisdictions, evaded income taxes and resorted to bulk cash smuggling. 
 
 Both Traffic Sports International and Traffic Sports USA pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy this month. 
 
 [FIFA’s ugly stains on the beautiful game] 
 
 The executives found a profitable playground in FIFA, which holds more than $1.5 billion in cash reserves. The organization pockets about $1.4 billion from its six official corporate sponsors every four years, with Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai/Kia Motors, Emirates, Sony and Visa pledged as partners for the most recent World Cup. 
 
 Made up of 209 regional member associations that represent organized soccer, FIFA is both financially opaque, cloaking much of its spending and executive salaries, and tremendously profitable. 
 
 Between 2007 and 2010, when FIFA made 83 percent of its more than $4 billion in revenues off selling TV and marketing rights to the 2010 World Cup, its profits totaled about $631 million, income statements show. 
 
 FIFA, or the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, called itself the “injured party” in the investigation and said it "welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football,” a statement released Wednesday said. 
 
 Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice president and soccer official from Trinidad and Tobago charged in the U.S. case, said in a statement to the Daily Mail in London that the investigation hid economic motives. 
 
 “The large world powers typically take actions to affect world football,'' Warner said. " World football is an enormous international business.” 
 
 Post researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.
– You'd think that much cold, hard cash would make for an uncomfortable night's sleep. The AP reports a 28-year-old Brazilian man was arrested this week in Massachusetts after authorities found about $20 million hidden in a box spring. The arrest of Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha is connected to an investigation into TelexFree, an alleged pyramid scheme, according to Reuters. Authorities say TelexFree was originally created to swindle Brazilian immigrants but ended up taking $1.8 billion from nearly 1 million people around the world. Authorities say Rocha, acting as a courier for the nephew of TelexFree's founder, delivered a suitcase containing $2.2 million to a cooperating witness. They then followed him to an apartment where they found $20 million more under a mattress. He's been charged with conspiring to commit money laundering.