RIO DE JANEIRO: An executive from the World Cup’s hospitality services firm escaped out the back door of his plush Rio de Janeiro hotel on Thursday to avoid arrest on charges of illegally selling tickets, authorities said.

Police launched a manhunt for Raymond Whelan, a British director of FIFA partner company Match Services, accusing him of fleeing the beachfront Copaca­bana Palace Hotel after a judge ordered him and 10 other suspects to be held in detention.

*Know more: [official released from police custody][1*]

“The Englishman fled through the hotel’s back door and is considered a fugitive,” Rio police said in a statement.

“We saw him in footage leaving in a hurry,” Fabio Barucke, the case’s investigator, told reporters, adding that Whelan had fled an hour before police arrived.

Brazilian TV showed footage of Whelan, wearing a blue shirt, walking with another man who points to him to sit on a chair near the service exit before he left the hotel, which is heavily guarded and houses top FIFA officials.

Whelan is accused of being involved with a scalping network that has sold thousands of tickets worth millions of dollars, going back to the 2002 World Cup.

Whelan, who denies the charges, was initially arrested at the same hotel on Monday but was granted preventive release the next day. His passport was seized by the authorities, but police fear he may have acquired another one from the British consulate.

Police filed charges against him and 11 others on Wednesday and submitted the case to prosecutors, who requested an arrest warrant against all except one who was cooperating with investigators.

Prosecutors said the 12 suspects face charges of organised crime, illegal ticket sales, corruption, money laundering and tax fraud. Ten of them are in jail, except for Whelan and suspect who is cooperating.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014