Argentina official commits suicide over trial claims

A former Argentine football official has reportedly committed suicide after he was accused of bribe-taking in testimony to a trial of top former FIFA igures in New York.

Jorge Delhon threw himself under a train in a Buenos Aires suburb on Tuesday, Argentine newspapers Clarin and La Nacion reported on their websites.

A sports marketing executive, Alejandro Burzaco, had testified in the trial Tuesday that Delhon and another man, Pablo Paladino, took millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for rights to broadcast football games.

Burzaco, the first witness in the trial, painted a damning picture of corruption in South American soccer, saying millions of dollars in bribes were paid for TV rights to major tournaments.

Burzaco, the former chairman of an Argentine sports marketing company, pleaded guilty in November 2015 to racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies and agreed to pay $21.6 million in restitution.

In US federal court, he detailed how his Torneos y Competencias S.A. company paid bribes to South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) executives for more than a decade to secure television rights to major tournaments.

Payments were sent by wire transfer to Swiss bank accounts or passed on as cash “in bags or envelopes,” Burzaco added.