Fifa trial: guilty verdict for two South American chiefs
A US jury convicted two South American former football bosses of corruption on Friday, with the fate of a third Fifa official to be determined after Christmas in New York.
The panel returned guilty verdicts against Jose Maria Marin, former head of Brazil’s Football Confederation, and Juan Angel Napout, who led Paraguay’s board, on the sixth day of deliberations after a seven-week trial.
Marin, 85, was convicted on six of seven counts, and Napout, 59, on three of five, in connection with television and marketing rights to games.
The jurors said they had not yet reached consensus on former Peruvian boss Manuel Burga, who faces a count of racketeering conspiracy.
The trial in a Brooklyn federal court exposed systemic criminal activity at the heart of the world’s most popular sport, two and a half years after the US unveiled the largest corruption scandal in the history of the game.
Prosecutors charged 42 officials and marketing executives, and the sports company Traffic detailed 92 alleged crimes involving more than US$200 million (Dh734.5m), but so far only these three defendants have faced trial.
Marin and Napout were convicted of racketeering conspiracy under US law penalising criminal organisation, charges that have led to mafia chiefs being jailed, for accepting bribes in exchange for allotting TV and marketing rights to matches.
Prosecutors said the two were blinded by greed into accepting $17m in bribes – $10.5m to Napout and $6.5m to Marin.
Jose Hawilla, an associate who became a co-operating witness for the US government, taped Marin talking about taking bribes.
The Brazilian was acquitted only of one count of money-laundering conspiracy, in relation to the Brazil Cup. He was convicted on two others, as well as wire fraud and racketeering conspiracies.
Napout was convicted on one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud conspiracy. He was acquitted on two counts of money-laundering conspiracy.
The US government told jurors that Mr Burga, 60, agreed to receive bribes but never did because he was under investigation in Peru for money laundering.
Each count faces a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars. Lawyers for Marin and Napout said they would appeal against the convictions.
The proceedings lifted the lid on the life of luxury and excess enjoyed by members of Fifa’s executive committee, including personal chauffeurs, private jets and “presidential treatment”, luxury hotels, and meetings in idyllic resorts in the Bahamas or Mauritius.
The defence lawyers claimed that while there was indisputable corruption at Fifa, nothing suggested their clients were directly involved.
None of the accused took the stand in their defence.