High-Ranking Soccer Officials Convicted in Multi-Million Dollar Bribery Schemes

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/high-ranking-soccer-officials-convicted-multi-million-dollar-bribery-schemes

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 26, 2017

High-Ranking Soccer Officials Convicted in Multi-Million Dollar Bribery Schemes

Juan Ángel Napout and José Maria Marin Convicted of Racketeering Conspiracy and Related Offenses

On Friday, former high-ranking soccer officials Juan Ángel Napout and José Maria Marin were convicted of racketeering conspiracy and related crimes by a federal jury in Brooklyn. The crimes of conviction related to the defendants’ participation in schemes to accept millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for the media and marketing rights to various soccer tournaments. In addition to racketeering conspiracy, Napout was also convicted of two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, and Marin was convicted of three counts of wire fraud conspiracy and two counts of money laundering conspiracy. Today, the jury found the defendant Manuel Burga, former president of the Peruvian soccer federation, not guilty of racketeering conspiracy, the one count on which he was extradited from Peru.[1] After the jury rendered its verdict, which followed a six-week trial before United States District Judge Pamela K. Chen, Judge Chen remanded Napout and Marin into custody.

At the time of his arrest in December 2015, Napout was the president of the South American soccer confederation, known as CONMEBOL, a member of the FIFA Executive Committee, and a FIFA Vice President. He had also previously served as president of the Paraguayan soccer federation. At the time of his arrest in May 2015, Marin was the former head of the Brazilian soccer federation, known as the CBF, and a member of various FIFA standing committees. As proved at trial, the defendants and their co-conspirators accepted or agreed to accept tens of millions of dollars in bribe payments over the course of the conspiracy.
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The evidence at trial, including witness testimony, contemporaneously kept ledgers, bank records, emails and text messages, and consensual recordings, established that the defendants and their co-conspirators had engaged in a conspiracy to corrupt the enterprise through racketeering activity. Specifically, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the FIFA enterprise through the offer and receipt of tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks paid by sports marketing companies to soccer officials. In particular, the evidence at trial established that Napout and Marin accepted, or agreed to accept, millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for the media and marketing rights to: (a) multiple editions of the CONMEBOL-sponsored Copa América soccer tournament played periodically by South American national teams, including the Copa América Centenario, a special edition of the tournament played in the United States in 2016; and (b) multiple editions of the CONMEBOL-sponsored Copa Libertadores soccer tournament played annually by South American club teams.

The Copa América bribes were paid, variously, by principals of the sports marketing companies Traffic, Torneos y Competencias (“Torneos”), and Full Play. The Copa Libertadores bribes were paid by Torneos and related entities, using Full Play as an intermediary. In addition, the government proved that Marin agreed to receive millions of dollars worth of bribes in exchange for the media and marketing rights to the Copa do Brasil, a soccer tournament sponsored by the CBF for Brazilian soccer clubs. Marin received and agreed to receive these bribes from Traffic and a Brazilian sports marketing company named Klefer.

Defendants who have pleaded guilty and corporate entities that have entered agreements with the government have agreed to forfeit more than $200,000,000 in this and related cases, and the government has collected more than $60,000,000 of that figure to date. The government has also restrained assets around the world in connection with this and related cases, with the assistance of various foreign governments. As previously announced, all of the forfeited funds are being held in reserve, in order to ensure their availability to satisfy any orders of restitution entered at sentencing for the benefit of individuals or entities that qualify as victims under federal law.
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