A Federal Court of Appeals restored on July 2 the convictions of a former Fox employee and an Argentine marketing company for paying millions in bribes to ensure coveted rights to transmit football tournaments.
In a 32-page decision, a panel of US Appeals Court judges for the 2nd circuit wrote that another judge, Pamela K. Chen of the US District Court in Brooklyn, had been wrong to nullify the 2023 convictions of former Fox employee Hernán López and Full Play Group’s marketing company.
The decision was a victory for Brooklyn prosecutors in a case that arose from the broad investigation by the Department of Justice on corruption involving international football leaders. The case, which became known as FIFAGATE, was revealed after a series of top hat arrests in Switzerland a decade ago.
Prosecutors accused López, who worked for a unit of what was then known as 21st Century Fox, to plot the rights of two South American tournaments making secret payments to presidents of national football federations.
Prosecutors also stated that López, the American citizen and Argentine, had illicitly helped Fox overcome ESPN for the US World Cup broadcast rights of the US World Cup and 2022, using “loyalty guaranteed through bribes.” Fox, which was never accused of irregularities, denied government allegations.
John Gleeson, López’s lawyer, said he plans to resort to the Supreme Court. He added in a statement that he had “no doubt that our client will end up being totally acquitted.”
After leaving Fox, López founded the podcast company Wondery, which was later sold to Amazon for about $ 300 million ($ 1.6 billion in the current price).
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s office for the East District refused to comment, as well as a Full Play lawyer.
Since federal authorities began to investigate corruption in FIFA, a worldwide body of football, more than two dozen people and organizations have been guilty or convicted of charges of corruption.
The investigation shook FIFA, a non -profit organization based in Zurich, whose leaders have long been persecuted for corruption allegations, but had never faced scrutiny or the prospect of legal supervision. Following the arrests of seven federation leaders in a luxurious Hotel in Zurich in May 2015, the organization saw generations of leaders accused of crimes or forced to resign.
López and Full Play were indicted in 2020. After a seven -week trial, López was convicted of money laundering and service fraud, while Full Play Group was convicted of fraud and money laundering. A third defendant was acquitted.
Six months later, Chen decided that the status of service fraud did not apply to foreign bribe and annulled the convictions, citing a decision of the Supreme Court that dealt with the same status.
His decision threatened to undermine the long case of FIFA, which has so far resulted in more than two dozen voluntary guilt confessions, as well as four convictions on trial and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and refunds.
The Justice Department promised to continue fighting for the convictions; In January, the government’s lawyers argued before the Court of Appeals that Chen had incorrectly imposed the law.
The decision of the last day 2 was a blow to the defendants whose convictions had been reversed by Chen, as well as many others who hoped they could also nullify their confessions of guilt. Defendants’ lawyers argued that bribery in many Latin American countries was just a cost of doing business and that US prosecutors had extrapolated.
“Opinion seems to go against the tendency to critically analyze cases where the alleged crime is somewhat vacant,” said Samuel Rosenthal, a lawyer of Eduardo Li, former president of the Costa Rica Football Federation, who declared himself to blame for three accusations in October 2016. He said the accusations punished “conduct that would normally be considered civilly and morally questionable but should not be criminalized.”
Li asked the court last year to reverse his conviction based on the same decision as the Supreme Court as Chen used in his decision on López and Full Play. This motion and three others presented by persons convicted in the case were suspended while awaiting appeals.
Among them are Juan Ángel Napout of Paraguay, former Principal Football Leader of South America, and José Maria Marin, who was president of the powerful soccer entity in Brazil. They were convicted in 2017 for their roles in the corruption scheme. Napout was sentenced to nine years in prison, and Marin for four years, but eventually received freedom for humanitarian reasons and returned to their home countries.
Napout paid more than $ 4 million (R $ 21.8 million in the current price) to the US government in penalties and was seeking the return of this money along with the cancellation of his conviction.
Napout and Marin lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
