The former president of Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) Reynaldo Vásquez He was sentenced this Thursday to 16 months in prison in USA after pleading guilty to taking bribes in the so-called case ‘FIFAGate’.
The sentence was handed down by a federal court in Brooklyn (New York)where in recent years dozens of people involved in the scandal that was uncovered at the end of 2015 as a result of an international operation against those responsible for the FIFA.
Vasquezwhich led the Fesfut between 2009 and 2011, he was arrested in December 2015 in The Savior and, after facing the Justice of his country for another case, he was extradited in 2021 to USA.
In New Yorkthe 66-year-old leader pleaded guilty to criminal association charges and admitted that he and other Salvadoran officials had accepted more than $350,000 in bribes from a company in exchange for the sale of broadcast rights to national team matches. .
In the agreement reached with the Prosecutor, Vasquez He further agreed to pay $360,000.
“The defendant and his accomplices, motivated by greed, disgraced themselves by lining their pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, at the expense of a beautiful sport, from the soccer federation of The Savior and the community they served,” the district attorney, Breon Peace.
According to Peacewith this statement Vasquez He is accountable, just like “many other corrupt soccer leaders” who have been sentenced in the framework of “FIFAGate” have done.
So far, 27 people and four companies involved have pleaded guilty in this case and there have been two other convictions after trials.
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