Bribery trial against South American football officials draws to a close
Three former South American football officials were at the centre of a vast conspiracy that deprived the sport of hundreds of millions of dollars.
US prosecutors have spent years building a case they say exposes the ugly reality of the game. For the past month, they have been detailing how a culture of corruption distorted deals for TV rights by awarding contracts in exchange for bribes.
The trial has produced moments of high drama, including accusations that a defendant was threatening a co-operative witness.
In her closing argument, Kristin Mace, assistant US attorney, laid out the prosecution’s case before the federal court in Brooklyn.
“This trial has given you a unique look inside a broad international conspiracy – a conspiracy to enrich the elite soccer officials of the world, bribe after bribe, year after year, decade after decade,” Ms Mace told the jury.
Jose Maria Marin, Manuel Burga and Juan Angel Napout have each denied being part of a multi-million dollar conspiracy in bribes for help in winning lucrative commercial rights to the Fifa World Cup and other international tournaments.
They are the first to stand trial since police swooped on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich in May 2015, arresting officials from the sport’s governing body and exposing what prosecutors say was a quarter of a century of corruption.
Since then more than 20 senior Fifa figures and marketing executives have pleaded guilty.
The trial, in Brooklyn’s federal court, has gripped world attention as details of the prosecution case were revealed for the first time.
They included details of how senior Fifa figures were promised as much as US$1 million (Dh3.67m) to vote for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup.
Ms Mace said the sport of football and its governing bodies were the victims of the conspiracy.
“Each defendant agreed to the bribes and deprived the soccer organisations of the right to his honest services,” she said.
Each put their own financial interests first, rather than opening contracts to competition,” Ms Mace told the jury.
Prosecutors completed their case on Tuesday and defence lawyers opted not to call any witnesses.
The three defence teams have each argued that their clients were innocent bystanders and that the testimony of co-operative witnesses was not to be trusted.
The case has been heard amid the sort of tight security and dramatic twists more usually seen in New York mob cases. The judge dismissed a juror for sleeping and a defendant was accused of threatening a witness by running his fingers across his throat in a slicing motion.
Prosecutors said they had twice seen Mr Burga make the gesture, striking fear into their witness.
Defence lawyers insisted he had been merely scratching his throat, but Judge Pamela Chen ordered him to be placed “effectively on lockdown” under house arrest and denied access to phones and computers.
Prosecutors are determined to make an impact on a scandal that other countries have been unable to tackle.
They have presented dozens of witnesses and evidence culled from millions of pages of documents.
A former Argentine football official, Jorge Delhon, killed himself hours after the New York court heard he took $2m in exchange for the rights to broadcast matches.
Some of the most damning evidence came from Alejandro Burzaco, a former marketing executive who has admitted his role. He said Mr Napout, 59, and Mr Burga, 60, were among officials who pocketed six-figure bribes.
Mr Marin, 85, was president of Brazil’s Football Confederation. Mr Burga, 60, is the former president of Peru’s football federation and Mr Napout, 59, is a former president of Paraguay’s football federation.