NEW YORK (AP) — Two former Fox executives were on trial Tuesday on charges that they bribed South American soccer officials for television rights to one of the continent’s biggest annual tournaments and used information gleaned in the process to help broadcast the winning goal of the World Cup. It is the latest case to go to court in the FIFA bribery scandal.
Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez are accused of giving bribes and proxies to South American Football Confederation officials to broadcast the Copa Libertadores, an annual club tournament similar to the European Champions League, through a partnership with Torneos y Competencias, an Argentinian company production and marketing. company . .
Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Zapana told jurors in an opening statement that the alleged bribes — totaling millions of dollars — fueled a system of secret, no-bid, below-market contracts and “allowed disloyal football executives to live a life of luxury. , buy . Chanel, to buy Hermes”, referring to two famous luxury brands.
“Everybody won except the football game,” Zapana said at the trial in Brooklyn federal court, which is expected to last at least a month.
Prosecutors say the winnings allowed Lopez and Martinez to further Fox’s other soccer interests, including obtaining classified information from a high-ranking FIFA and confederation official about bids for United States broadcast rights for the World Cup from 2018 and 2022.
The bribe, Zapana said, helped “broaden Fox’s rationale.”
via the Associated Press
Lopez, originally from Argentina, is the former CEO of Fox International Channels. He left the company in 2016 to start podcasting company Wondery. Martinez, a native of Mexico, is the former president of Fox International’s Latin American division.
Fox has denied any involvement in corruption. The company sold the South American soccer broadcasting entity in 2019 as part of a wider restructuring in which it unloaded its film studio, cable networks and international assets.
Another sports media and marketing company, Full Play Group SA, is on trial with Lopez and Martinez, but the company’s corruption charges involve more television rights. Full Play, founded in Uruguay and owned by father-son duo Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, is accused of paying bribes for the rights to Copa America, a quadrennial competition for national teams, as well as World Cup qualifiers and one-off matches. , known as friendly.
Lawyers for Lopez and Martinez say the former executives were defrauded and stalked by their former business partner in Copa Libertadores affairs. Former Torneos boss Alejandro Burzaco has agreed to cooperate and testify as a star witness for the prosecution in several football corruption trials following his own corruption arrest. He is expected to testify on Wednesday.
Lopez’s lawyer, John Gleeson, argued in his opening statement that it was Burzaco who secretly bribed officials of the South American confederation, known as CONMEBOL, without Lopez and Martinez’s knowledge. Gleeson said Burzaco is now falsely accusing them of increasing his value to prosecutors and avoiding prison time.
via the Associated Press
Lopez and Martinez began working with Burzaco in 2011 when Fox International Channels acquired the South American sports network that partnered with Torneos on Copa Libertadores broadcasts. Gleeson said Burzaco had banned the directors from negotiating with CONMEBOL and refused to provide them with copies of the contracts.
Gleeson said Lopez was unaware of Burzaco’s behavior – he allegedly bribed CONMEBOL officials and obtained some television rights for him instead of the Fox partnership – until 2014, when Burzaco’s Uruguayan rival gave him a copy of the broadcaster’s contract, the renewal and an audio recording of the negotiations. .
Lopez immediately alerted Fox’s internal audit and legal departments, which sent a team of accountants and investigators to Argentina, Gleeson said. Burzaco was arrested nine months later.
Gleeson described Burzaco as a “walking, talking criminal enterprise” and a “professional crime artist and con artist”. He implored jurors to decide “if you believe a word he says” and said his testimony against Lopez and Martinez was “an opportunity to get revenge on his enemy, whom he blames for his death.”
“You’re about to witness his quest for redemption,” Gleeson said.
Burzaco pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges. He testified in 2017 that all three South Americans on FIFA’s executive committee took millions of dollars in bribes to support Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup, which just ended.
So far, more than two dozen people have pleaded guilty and two people have been sentenced in cases stemming from a US-led investigation into corruption and the embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars at the top levels of soccer. Four corporate entities also pleaded guilty, and four companies entered into non-prosecution or non-prosecution agreements.
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