By Joiner Martínez
May 28, 2024, 9:57 PM EDT
The president of Conmebol Alejandro Domínguez once again referred to the alleged money laundering in Paraguay carried out in 2017 and whose investigation has been paralyzed.
“It is money that should be on the football field, in the development of the sport, not in the pockets of the leaders, of the powerful,” said Domínguez.
The leader also assured that the Confederation “will redouble efforts to recover funds appropriated by leaders, with the complicity of financial institutions.” Santiago Peña, president of Paraguay, attended the event accompanied by members of his cabinet.
To date, Conmebol has achieved the restitution of around $150 million dollars through actions carried out in the United States, Switzerland and Paraguay. The starting point was the completion of an audit in 2017.
The entity recently presented a request to the Prosecutor’s Office to reactivate the criminal case for alleged money laundering to which Domínguez referred, which involves former president Nicolás Leoz and Banco Atlas SA. In 2016, the aforementioned former head of the Confederation negotiated the creation of two trusts worth more than $6 million dollars with the aforementioned banking entity, when an international arrest warrant and an extradition request were already weighing on him.
However, the criminal investigation by the Public Ministry has been on hold for three years (the last proceedings were the raid of Banco Atlas SA and the Superintendency of Banks).
“Since 2017, Paraguay has changed its president three times (Horacio Cartes, under whose government the first complaint was filed; Mario Abdo Benítez and Santiago Peña) and two attorneys general (Sandra Quiñónez and Emiliano Rolón Fernández),” Conmebol illustrated in a statement. in which he requests the return of the money “stolen from South American football.”
During his speech at the opening of Football Week, Domínguez added that the recovered money is used for the expansion of the positive values of sport and stressed: “We are not going to stop until justice is done, we will confront the powerful who still have the power.” football money.”
“The recovery of money from the hands of corruption becomes tangible with initiatives such as this Football Week, which seeks to promote an inclusive and plural vision of sport,” concluded the writing released by the mother entity of the discipline at the continental level.
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