The United States Department of Justice announced this Thursday that it will compensate FIFA, Concacaf, Conmebol and other national soccer federations with another $50 millions of dollars for the losses caused by the corruption schemes in this sport.
EE.UU. already announced in August of last year a compensation of $201 million dollars for these entities, an amount subtracted from the accounts of the former officials involved in the international corruption schemes that were prosecuted by the Justice in the so-called “FIFA-Gate” case.
The case has been resolved in charges against 50 defendants, individuals or legal entities of more than 20 countries, for bribes and commissions paid by sports marketing companies to soccer officials in exchange for media rights over tournaments and events, as well as the laundering of that money.
As part of the processthat began in 2015, many of the defendants had to return the assets obtained through corruption, which the US Justice has liquidated and distributed to the victims, including soccer organizations that employed those corrupt executives who defrauded them.
“For a good part of the last decade, this investigation and the prosecution have focused on bringing bring the offenders to justice and recover the undue profits,” said the prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace.
FIFA, Concacaf and Conmebol have agreed to distribute compensation to a fund (World Football Remission Fund) established under the auspices of the FIFA Foundation and which focuses on the promotion of football for women and girls, education or humanitarian needs.
Of the $ 92 millions of dollars granted by the Justice, to which are now added another $92 million, the organizations affected by the plot received an initial payment of about $32 million in August of last year.
“It is gratifying to know that the assets recovered from the criminals involved will be distributed to groups that need the money, and one specifically focused on educating and protecting soccer for women and girls”, commented the deputy director of the FBI in New York, Michael Driscoll.
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