Afp and of the Writing
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday March 10, 2023, p. a10
New York., The United States authorities gave another sentence for the case FIFAgate. Hernán López, former executive of the American company 21st Century Fox, and the Argentine agency Full Play were found guilty of corruption by a federal jury in Brooklyn, in the context of the mega-scandal of bribery of the world soccer governing body that broke out in 2015 .
In contrast, Mexican Carlos Martínez, former president for Latin America at 21 Century Fox, was acquitted despite facing the same charges.
After seven weeks of trial, authorities found Argentina’s Hernán López guilty of participating in schemes to bribe executives from FIFA, Conmebol and, in the case of Full Play, Concacaf, in order to get the results. broadcast rights to lucrative soccer tournaments.
Although López and Martínez were part of the corruption network, it would have been the Mexican who signed an agreement in 2012, which, according to US prosecutors, served to clean up the signs of bribery.
However, according to the investigations, Martínez was less involved in the case than López.
The investigating judge Pamela Chena has yet to announce a date to define the sentences, which can go up to 40 years in prison for López and million-dollar fines for him and Full Play.
According to the US court, the defendants used their positions in the world of international soccer to participate in schemes involving soliciting, offering, accepting, paying, and receiving bribes and kickbacks, primarily to obtain lucrative broadcasting rights to various international football events and tournaments
.
Brooklyn prosecutor Breon Peace hailed the ruling. The ruling is a resounding victory for justice and for soccer fans around the world.
said.
The defendants hid their corrupt acts behind intermediaries, bank accounts in tax havens and a facade of respectability, but they could not hide from justice
said for his part the agent of the tax service Tyler Hatcher.
Buenos Aires-based Full Play, owned by Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano, participated in numerous schemes to pay bribes to Conmebol and Concacaf executives in exchange for television and marketing rights to various soccer tournaments, including matches World Cup qualifying and friendlies, the Copa Libertadores and several editions of the Copa América.
Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, accused in the first accusation of the case revealed on May 27, 2015, are fugitives from justice.
millionaire conspiracies
For his part, López, a senior executive at a Fox affiliate responsible for developing and running Fox’s sports broadcasting business in Latin America, joined Full Play and other conspirators in a scheme that involved paying millions of dollars a year. of dollars in bribes to Conmebol officials to take over the broadcasting rights of the Libertadores.
Alejandro Burzaco, a key witness for the prosecution, assured that Fox Sports obtained the rights to broadcast the World Cups in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022) for the United States thanks to the intervention of the then president of the Argentine Soccer Association (AFA). , Julio Grondona, much to the disappointment
on ESPN, which had broadcast every World Cup since 1982.
Burzaco also pointed out as testimony in another trial of the FIFAgate that the Mexican Televisa and the Brazilian Globo would have paid 15 million dollars to Grondona to obtain the rights to the 2018, 2022, 2026 and 2030 Cups.
A year later, Televisa faced a class action lawsuit in the Southern District Court of New York, accused of artificially inflating the company’s foreign shares in the United States, which fell after Burzaco’s statements.
However, the Mexican television station reached an agreement last week to pay 95 million dollars and settle the lawsuit.
The US Attorney’s Office has accused more than 50 people and several sports companies of more than 90 crimes and paying or accepting more than 200 million dollars in bribes.
A dozen soccer leaders are still in their countries, where they were prosecuted by local justice or are at large trying to avoid extradition to the US.
