NEW YORK (AP) — Two former Fox executives went on trial Tuesday, accused of bribing South American soccer officers for TV rights to one of many continent’s greatest annual tournaments and utilizing data gathered within the course of to assist the community’s successful World Cup broadcast bid. It’s the most recent case to go to court docket within the sprawling FIFA corruption scandal.
Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez are charged with paying bribes and kickbacks to South American Soccer Confederation officers to broadcast the Copa Libertadores, an annual membership match akin to the Champions League in Europe, by way of a partnership with Torneos y Competencias, an Argentine manufacturing and advertising and marketing firm.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Victor Zapana informed jurors in a gap assertion that the alleged bribes — totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars — fueled a system of secret, no-bid, below-market contracts and “allowed disloyal soccer executives to reside a lifetime of luxurious, to purchase Chanel, to purchase Hermes,” referencing two standard luxurious manufacturers.
“Everybody gained apart from the sport of soccer,” Zapana stated on the trial in Brooklyn federal court docket, which is predicted to final a minimum of a month.
Prosecutors allege the payoffs enabled Lopez and Martinez to additional Fox’s different soccer pursuits, together with gaining confidential data from a high-ranking FIFA and confederation official about bidding for U.S. broadcast rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
The bribes, Zapana stated, helped “develop Fox’s attain.”
Lopez, a local of Argentina, is the previous chief govt of Fox Worldwide Channels. He left the corporate in 2016 to start out the podcasting firm Wondery. Martinez, a local of Mexico, is the previous president of Fox Worldwide’s Latin America affiliate.
Fox has denied any involvement in bribery. The corporate offered the entity concerned within the South American soccer broadcasts in 2019 as half of a bigger restructuring through which it offloaded its film studio, cable networks and worldwide belongings.
One other sports activities media and advertising and marketing firm, Full Play Group SA, is on trial with Lopez and Martinez, however the bribery allegations in opposition to that agency contain totally different TV rights. Full Play, integrated in Uruguay and owned by the father-son duo Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, is accused of paying bribes for the rights to the Copa America, a quadrennial nationwide workforce competitors, in addition to World Cup qualifying matches and one-off matches, often called friendlies.
Lopez and Martinez’s legal professionals contend the previous executives are being framed and retaliated in opposition to by their one-time enterprise accomplice on the Copa Libertadores offers. Alejandro Burzaco, the previous head of Torneos, agreed to cooperate and testify as a star prosecution witness at a number of soccer corruption trials after his personal bribery arrest. He's anticipated to testify Wednesday.
Lopez’s lawyer, John Gleeson, argued in his opening assertion that it was Burzaco who was secretly bribing officers on the South American confederation, often called CONMEBOL, with out Lopez and Martinez’s information. Gleeson stated Burzaco was now falsely accusing them to boost his price to prosecutors and keep out of jail.
Lopez and Martinez began working with Burzaco in 2011, when Fox Worldwide Channels took over the South American sports activities community that had been partnering with Torneos on the Copa Libertadores broadcasts. Gleeson stated Burzaco shut the executives out of negotiations with CONMEBOL and refused to supply them with copies of contracts.
Gleeson stated Lopez was unaware of Burzaco’s conduct — allegedly bribing CONMEBOL officers and snagging some TV rights for himself, as an alternative of the Fox partnership — till 2014, when Burzaco’s Uruguayan rival gave him a replica of a renewal contract and an audio recording of the negotiations.
Lopez instantly alerted Fox’s inner audit and authorized departments, which dispatched a workforce of accountants and investigators to Argentina, Gleeson stated. Burzaco was arrested 9 months later.
Gleeson described Burzaco as a “strolling, speaking legal enterprise” and a “skilled legal and con man.” He implored jurors to determine “in the event you imagine a single phrase he says” and stated that his testifying in opposition to Lopez and Martinez was a “probability to get again at his enemy, whom he blames for his demise.”
“You’re going to witness his try at payback,” Gleeson stated.
Burzaco has pleaded responsible to racketeering conspiracy and different prices. He testified in 2017 that each one three South Individuals on the FIFA govt committee took million-dollar bribes to assist Qatar’s bid for the not too long ago accomplished 2022 World Cup.
To date, greater than two dozen individuals have pleaded responsible and two individuals have been convicted at trial in circumstances stemming from a U.S.-led investigation into tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks at soccer’s highest ranges. 4 company entities additionally pleaded responsible and 4 corporations have entered into deferred prosecution or non-prosecution agreements.
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