U.S. prosecutors on Monday announced new criminal charges against two former executives of 21st Century Fox Inc and others stemming from a long-running investigation of corruption surrounding FIFA, soccer's world governing body.
The former Fox executives, Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez, were indicted in Brooklyn federal court on wire fraud and money laundering along with Gerard Romy, former co-CEO of Spanish media company Imagina Media Audiovisual SL, and Full Play Group SA, a Uruguayan sports marketing company. Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be identified.
#BREAKING: Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unveiled new charges in the FIFA corruption probe, including against 2 former FOX marketing execs. Prosecutors say their involvement helped them "obtain confidential bidding" info for U.S. rights to 2018, 2022 World Cups, which FOX won.
— Zach Zagger (@ZachZagger) April 6, 2020
Prosecutors said the defendants bribed soccer officials to secure media and marketing rights to lucrative soccer tournaments, using shell companies, sham consulting contracts and other methods to conceal the scheme.
The U.S. investigation into corruption in the world of soccer became public in 2015 with the announcement of criminal charges against a slew of officials and others. Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay, former head of South American governing body CONMEBOL, and former Brazilian soccer chief Jose Maria Marin, were convicted in 2017 after a trial. Many other defendants have pleaded guilty.
