Little by little, the details of the biggest corruption scandal in the history of football are being unraveled and unraveled. The North American justice initiated another trial of those more involved in the bribery scheme for the transmission of the matches, with the same modus operandi that also splashes the businessman AJ Vierci, who is in the crosshairs for his business with a company accused of bribing South American soccer leaders.
Source: The Black Box – Unicanal
Source: The Black Box
Last week A federal court in New York initiated a lawsuit against two former executives of the US conglomerate 21 Century Fox and the Uruguayan sports marketing company Full Play, for his involvement in the corruption scandal of the International Football Federation (FIFA). The Mexican Carlos Martínez and the Argentine Hernán López, who worked in the Fox business in Latin America, and the Full Play agency, are accused of numerous charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering, and face sentences of up to 20 years. from jail.
Both are allegedly responsible for the payment of bribes to Conmebol executives to ensure that the company maintained the TV rights of the main South American tournaments, and also of having obtained privileged information for the bidding of the TV broadcasts of the World Cups in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022.
The Argentine businessman Alejandro Burzacowho pleaded guilty in 2015 to conspiracy and other charges, said last week before the US court that Hernán López, Carlos Martínez and Full Play collectively paid up to $32 million in bribes, to secure below-market contracts.
Related note: The US prosecutor’s office is targeting Vierci
The scandal known as “FIFAgate”, uncovered by the United States in May 2015, exposed a plot of millionaire bribes paid by sports marketing companies to Latin American soccer leaders in exchange for rights in television broadcasts and promotion of tournaments. The US Attorney’s Office charged 45 people and several sports companies with more than 90 crimes and paying or accepting more than $200 million in bribes. Of those, 27 pleaded guilty and half a dozen have been sentenced.
VIERCI, IN THE SPOTLIGHT OF THE US JUSTICE
In the middle of this scheme The Paraguayan businessman, Antonio Juan Bautista Vierci, better known as AJ Vierci, appears dotted with who did business with Full Play, the agency that is currently in the dock in the United States.
On December 6, 2017, In the middle of the room where a previous trial for the FIFAgate case was taking place in the Brooklyn Court, an American prosecutor exhibited Vierci’s photograph on a projector to the witness Nelson Sanabria, at the time of his statement. Sanabria, who was an assistant to former Conmebol president Juan Ángel Napout, had been summoned to the stand as another of the trial witnesses. “Do you know this man?” the prosecutor asked. Sanabria replied: “Yes, I have seen it in various events organized by Conmebol.” The witness added that he once called him to find out if they could help him with some raffles.
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Is It was not the first time that the surname Vierci was mentioned in the trial, but it was surprising that the Prosecutor’s Office has well identified the Paraguayan businessman, which led us to assume that they continue to collect information about his participation in the scheme to pay bribes to soccer leaders.
The one who categorically The name of Vierci had been invoked by the former employee of the defendant company Full Play, Santiago Peña, when, at the time of his intervention in the trial, he mentioned that the owner of Grupo Vierci had signed a contract with Full Play to cede the television rights of the matches of the Paraguayan national team.
The copy of said contract was attached to Peña’s statement, who stated that Napout, when he was president of the APF, received a bribe of US$1 million, paid by Mariano and Hugo Jinkis, owners of Full Play and partners of Datisa, for the rights to broadcast the matches of the Paraguayan national team.
