Former Soccer Official Costas Takkas Sentenced for Laundering Millions Of Dollars in Bribes

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/former-soccer-official-costas-takkas-sentenced-15-months-prison-laundering-millions

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Former Soccer Official Costas Takkas Sentenced to 15 Months In Prison for Laundering Millions Of Dollars in Bribes

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, former Cayman Islands soccer official Costas Takkas was sentenced to 15 months of incarceration by United States District Judge Pamela K. Chen following his money laundering conspiracy guilty plea on May 24, 2017. Takkas was convicted of this offense in connection with his agreement to launder $3 million in bribes to be paid by sports marketing companies to Jeffrey Webb, the former president of CONCACAF, $2 million of which reached Webb through Takkas. Takkas was also ordered to pay $3 million in restitution to the Caribbean Football Union, known as CFU, as part of his sentence.
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The defendant was a longtime associate of Jeffrey Webb, who in 2012 was the president of the Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA, which was a member of the CFU), a high-ranking official of the CFU, and the president of CONCACAF. Around that time, an executive of Traffic USA, a sports marketing company based in Miami, began negotiations with Webb to purchase the bundled media and marketing rights to the CFU federations’ World Cup qualifier matches for the 2018 and 2022 cycles. The defendant communicated on Webb’s behalf to the Traffic executive that Webb wanted a $3 million bribe in exchange for awarding these rights to Traffic. The Traffic executive agreed, and a few months later, after Webb had appointed the Traffic executive to serve as secretary general of CONCACAF, Traffic and the CFU entered into a contract for the sale of these rights. Meanwhile, the defendant began to work with the Traffic executive to determine how Traffic could pay Webb this bribe while disguising the true nature of the payments.

The defendant had meetings with other Traffic executives both in Miami and in Brazil, where Traffic’s parent company was located, to make arrangements for Traffic to secretly make these bribe payments to Webb. Following these meetings, in November 2012, Traffic wired $1.2 million from a bank account in Florida to a middleman’s bank account in Hong Kong, from which $1 million of these funds were wired to an account in the Cayman Islands owned by Kosson Ventures, Limited, a company the defendant controlled. In December 2012, Traffic wired an additional $500,000 to the Caymanian bank account of CPL Limited, another company the defendant controlled. In the course of receiving these funds, the defendant made false statements about them, and the accounts receiving them, to Caymanian bank employees. The defendant also created bogus consulting contracts purportedly to justify the payments.

After receiving these funds in the Caymanian accounts, the defendant conveyed them to Webb and the Traffic executive, or spent the funds for their benefit. For example, after wiring some of the funds to a Citibank account he held in Florida in his own name, Takkas used funds in that account to pay for real estate in Georgia that Webb was purchasing, and for a swimming pool at Webb’s house in Georgia. During the course of the scheme, the defendant lied to a Citibank employee about the payment for the swimming pool, watches for Webb and the Traffic executive, and a kitchen remodeling and expensive painting for the Traffic executive.

Also in 2012, Traffic entered an agreement with another Miami-based sports marketing company named Media World, whereby the two companies pooled the media and marketing rights they had obtained for World Cup qualifier matches in the CONCACAF region, and shared responsibility for associated costs. As part of that agreement, Media World agreed to be responsible for half of the $3 million bribe that Traffic had agreed to pay Webb for the CFU media rights. The defendant met with a Media World executive in Miami on several occasions to discuss how Media World could pay this bribe in a hidden manner. Eventually, the defendant and Media World arranged for $500,000 to be sent from a Panamanian front company to various accounts in the United States, the Cayman Islands, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, again using bogus consulting contracts to mask the true nature of the bribe payments. The defendant spent some of these funds to benefit Webb before the scheme was stopped, first by concerns about the government’s investigation and then by the disclosure of the scheme in May 2015 by the initial indictment in this case. saying that the swimming pool was a wedding gift for Webb. Takkas also used these funds to pay for luxury leather goods and watches for Webb and the Traffic executive, and a kitchen remodeling and expensive painting for the Traffic executive.

Also in 2012, Traffic entered an agreement with another Miami-based sports marketing company named Media World, whereby the two companies pooled the media and marketing rights they had obtained for World Cup qualifier matches in the CONCACAF region, and shared responsibility for associated costs. As part of that agreement, Media World agreed to be responsible for half of the $3 million bribe that Traffic had agreed to pay Webb for the CFU media rights. The defendant met with a Media World executive in Miami on several occasions to discuss how Media World could pay this bribe in a hidden manner. Eventually, the defendant and Media World arranged for $500,000 to be sent from a Panamanian front company to various accounts in the United States, the Cayman Islands, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, again using bogus consulting contracts to mask the true nature of the bribe payments. The defendant spent some of these funds to benefit Webb before the scheme was stopped, first by concerns about the government’s investigation and then by the disclosure of the scheme in May 2015 by the initial indictment in this case.
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