FIFA trial: Dance, massages as bribe
NEW YORK: A Brazilian businessman told a US Federal Court on Wednesday that he helped set up a huge bribe to South American football officials to secure the rights for a new tournament. Fabio Tordin testified at the trial of three South American football executives charged in connection with the largest graft scandal in world football history.
Tordin was one of 42 people indicted in the FIFA corruption mega-scandal. He pleaded guilty in 2015, agreed to return $600,000 and is now cooperating with the US government against three accused.
Jose Maria Marin, 85, former president of Brazil’s Football Confederation; former FIFA vice president Juan Angel Napout, 59, of Paraguay; and Manuel Burga, who led soccer in Peru, are the ones charged.
Tordin said three other top officials, from CONCACAF accepted nearly $500,000 from Argentinian sports rights company Full Play -- but the tournament never saw the light of day.
The deal was set up by Tordin and Miguel Trujillo, a Colombian football consultant with links to Full Play’s owners, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis. His account matched Trujillo’s, who earlier told the court that he helped set up bribes. The aim was to “convince the bosses that Full Play could be the marketing arm of CONCACAF,” he said.
“Full Play agreed to pay $300,000 for the officials in exchange for them signing the document,” said Tordin, adding Hawit, as president of CONCACAF, later said he “deserved” $150,000 more -- bringing the total payment to $450,000.
He also revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes were paid via banks in Panama to former senior figures in Honduran, Costa Rican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan football.
The three accused have pleaded not guilty.