Argentine Sports Marketing Company Bribery- $112 Million In Forfeiture And Criminal Penalties

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/argentine-sports-marketing-company-admits-role-international-soccer-bribery-conspiracy

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Argentine Sports Marketing Company Admits To Role In International Soccer Bribery Conspiracy And Agrees To $112 Million In Forfeiture And Criminal Penalties

Torneos y Competencias S.A. Enters Into Four-Year Deferred Prosecution Agreement; Agrees to Enhanced Internal Controls and Compliance Obligations

Earlier today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York filed a criminal information in Brooklyn federal court charging Torneos y Competencias S.A. (Torneos), a South American sports marketing company, with wire fraud conspiracy in connection with the company’s long-running participation in a scheme to corrupt international soccer. Torneos entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government in which the company admitted to its role in the 15-year scheme, including its role in paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to a high-ranking FIFA official to secure his support for, among other things, the acquisition of rights to broadcast the 2018, 2022, 2026, and 2030 editions of the FIFA World Cup. As part of the deferred prosecution agreement, Torneos agreed to over $112.8 million in forfeiture and criminal penalties, and further agreed to implement enhanced internal controls and a rigorous corporate compliance program and to cooperate fully with the government’s ongoing investigation.
(snip)

According to court documents, Torneos engaged in a 15-year scheme to corrupt international soccer through the payment of bribes and kickbacks to high-ranking officials of FIFA, the organization responsible for the regulation and promotion of soccer worldwide, as well as leading officials of the continental confederations and other soccer governing bodies that operate under the FIFA umbrella. Torneos conspired with others to systematically pay and agree to pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to high-ranking officials of FIFA, two of FIFA’s confederations, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, and several national member associations, including the Argentine national soccer federation (AFA), to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments and matches. In addition to multiple editions of the FIFA World Cup, these tournaments and matches included the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores, the CONMEBOL Copa América, the jointly organized CONMEBOL/CONCACAF Copa América Centenario, and international friendly matches played by the Argentinian national soccer team.
(snip)

Over the course of several years starting in approximately 2010, Torneos, at times with the assistance of an affiliate of a major broadcasting company headquartered in Latin America and one of its high-level executives, paid millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to a high-ranking and influential FIFA official in connection with the Latin American broadcasting company affiliate’s acquisition of rights to broadcast the 2018, 2022, 2026, and 2030 editions of the World Cup, and the subsequent purchase and exploitation by Torneos’s subsidiary TyC International B.V. (TyC International) of the rights to broadcast those editions of the World Cup to audiences in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Among other things, the FIFA official – who was also a high-ranking official of CONMEBOL and AFA – used his enormous influence within the global governing body, in exchange for bribes, to push FIFA to sell lucrative rights to broadcast the 2026 and 2030 editions of the World Cup to the Latin American broadcasting company affiliate earlier than anticipated and long before the selection of host countries for those editions of the tournament.
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[sandensea]

1. Argentina's Macri made the mastermind's brother, Eugenio Burzaco, the Secretary of Security.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch indicted Eugenio's older brother, Alejandro, for his prominent role in FIFA gate.

Macri's right-wing administration, in turn, has had 50 top officials indicted on some kind of corruption charge (including Macri himself) - a record even in Argentina.