A US federal court has reversed 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 authorities in a number of scams involving broadcast and marketing rights.
The US Justice Department’s 2015 investigation into FIFA and the continental football confederations of South and North America resulted in multiple 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 jail and millions of dollars in fines were possible outcomes for Lopez.
Millions of dollars in penalties 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.
A wire fraud conviction against Joseph Percoco, a former advisor to former New York City governor Andrew Cuomo, was overturned by the Supreme Court in May.
This court must determine that (the statute) does not criminalize the conduct alleged in this case and that, as a result, the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain defendants’ convictions under that statute, Chen wrote in her ruling. “The Supreme Court’s latest wire fraud decisions, especially Percoco, and the absence of precedent applying honest services wire fraud to foreign commercial bribery,” Chen wrote in her decision.
“Defendants’ convictions for money laundering, based on their convictions for wire fraud committed in the course of their honest services, likewise cannot be supported. As a result, the court approves the defendants’ requests for acquittal on all counts of conviction,” she said.
Six of the most prominent individuals in South American football were the principal benefactors 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.