World Cup Bribery Convictions at Risk as US Wins Dismissals (1)

US prosecutors won dozens of convictions in a sprawling, decade-long crackdown on corruption linked to international soccer’s biggest tournament. Now, with World Cup games set to start in two weeks across North America, there are signs those cases could crumble.

A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday agreed to dismiss charges against two defendants convicted of bribing soccer officials, after the Trump administration made the unusual claim that prosecuting them no longer fit its priorities. The judge said she’d consider doing the same for four others caught up in the scandal.

The actions by US District Judge Pamela Chen, who has presided over the FIFA prosecutions since 2015, could open the door for dozens of others to demand their criminal convictions be tossed based on the administration’s policy shift toward those two cases. It also could put at risk hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution won by the government that some defendants want to claw back.

“The one thing these prosecutions achieved is prove that soccer’s power brokers could be investigated and prosecuted just like drug cartel bosses,” said Jodi Balsam, a professor at Brooklyn Law School in New York who specializes in sports law. Now, FIFA “may be managing to escape any meaningful punishment or criminal liability, using the very process that was meant to clean up the sport,” she said.

For her part, Chen said Wednesday she had little authority to challenge the US Justice Department’s request to dismiss the cases against Hernan Lopez, the former chief executive officer of Fox International Channels, and Full Play Group SA, an Argentine marketing company. She cited a ruling last year by a Manhattan judge who dismissed the federal corruption case against former New York mayor Eric Adamsat the request of the Trump administration.

Brooklyn US Attorney Joseph Nocella said the Justice Department “has decided that it does not want to use its resources to pursue the prosecution of this case, because it does not fit within the administration’s priorities,” which includes narcotics trafficking, homeland security, human trafficking, violent crimes and violent gangs.

The dismissals Wednesday coincided with the 11th anniversary of the DOJ’s crackdown on corruption in soccer, which exposed a sprawling fraud at the highest levels of FIFA, soccer’s governing body.

Dozens of defendants were accused of engaging in a 24-year long conspiracy to bribe high-ranking officials with six-figure sums for broadcast and media rights. More than 50 individuals and corporate defendants were charged, resulting in guilty pleas by more than 30 people and entities. Three people and one corporation were convicted at two trials.

Soccer Bosses

The case was unveiled in May 2015 after authorities executed a dramatic dawn raid at a five-star hotel in Switzerland, arresting soccer bosses and businessmen who gathered for an annual meeting. It brought down some of the biggest names in the sport, including Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, who was ousted as FIFA’s president after 17 years.

Tens of millions of dollars in forfeited funds and financial penalties were paid to the US government as part of the prosecutions, with at least $201 million paid to victims including broadcasters and some of FIFA’s six continental confederations.

But US Solicitor General John Sauer told the US Supreme Court in December that the government was no longer going to pursue criminal cases against Lopez and Full Play Group. Both were found guilty at trial in 2023, and their convictions were unanimously upheld by a federal appellate panel in July.

Sauer’s statement came a month after FIFA President Gianni Infantino visited President Donald Trump at the White House and days after the soccer organization awarded Trump the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize.”

The solicitor general effectively ordered the dismissal over the objection of Nocella’s office in Brooklyn, Bloomberg Law reported at the time. Separately, Nocella told Chen in December that the US sought to dismiss the case against Lopez and Full Play Group “in the interests of justice.” He later said the determination should not apply to others convicted in the FIFA crackdown.

‘Unusual Change’

Some victims in the case opposed the dismissals. GolTV, an American TV sports channel dedicated to soccer, protested the government’s “unusual change of position” and argued trial evidence showed it lost millions of dollars in potential revenue after bribes were paid to ensure broadcasting rights for certain tournaments were awarded to Fox, according to a court filing.

Chen invited others challenging the dismissal to speak Wednesday, but their lawyers all declined.

Four other defendants have already made bids to get their cases dismissed, including Jose Maria Marin, the former head of Brazilian soccer, and his co-defendant Juan Angel Napout, former head of FIFA’s South America’s soccer federation CONMEBOL. Both served time in prison and paid more than $4 million in fines after being convicted of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering charges in 2017. Both lost earlier court appeals.

Two others are Eduardo Li and Alfredo Hawit, both former top FIFA officials who pleaded guilty to racketeering and corruption charges. Both admitted accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes tied to a scheme to sell marketing rights to tournaments in Latin America, including World Cup qualifying events. Hawit was ordered to pay about $1 million in restitution while Li paid the US almost $2 million and both men were sentenced to the brief time they spent in custody.

Chen said Wednesday she would consider those dismissal requests, but didn’t say when she’ll decide.

(Updates with judge dismissing two cases in second paragraph, comments from judge and US attorney.)

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