A US federal judge has overturned two convictions in the FIFA corruption case, citing a recent Supreme Court decision.
In March, Hernan Lopez, a former executive with 21st Century Fox, and the Argentine sports marketing company Full Play were held responsible for bribing and paying kickbacks to South American football officials in a number of schemes involving television and marketing rights.
The US Justice Department’s 2015 investigation, which rocked FIFA and the regional soccer confederations for South and North America, produced a number of cases, including this one.
Raids on FIFA officials in Zurich were part of the US investigation, which resulted in a number of arrests, trials, and charges, convictions, and guilty pleas.
In the March decision, Lopez and Full Play were found guilty of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Up to 40 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines were possible outcomes for Lopez.
Millions of dollars in fines were anticipated to be imposed on Full Play, whose owners Hugo and Mariano Jinkis are still at large.
However, US district judge Pamela Chen ruled late on Friday that the wire fraud convictions could not stand according to a May Supreme Court judgment.
The Supreme Court reversed in May a wire fraud conviction of Joseph Percoco, a former aide to former New York City governor Andrew Cuomo.
“The Supreme Court’s latest wire fraud decisions – especially Percoco – and the absence of precedent applying honest services wire fraud to foreign commercial bribery, requires this court to find that (the statute) does not criminalize the conduct alleged in this case and that therefore the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain defendants’ convictions under that statute,” Chen wrote in her decision.
“Defendants’ convictions for money laundering, predicated on their honest services wire fraud convictions, also cannot be sustained. The court therefore grants defendants’ motions to acquit on all counts of conviction,” she added.
Six of the most prominent men in South American football were the principal beneficiaries of the kickback scam, the court had been told before the conviction.
They included the former president of CONMEBOL Nicolas Leoz, who passed away in 2019, the former head of Argentine football Julio Grondona, who passed away in 2014, and the former head of Brazilian football Ricardo Teixeira.
