2 Argentine Executives Admit Bribing FIFA Officials

Two Argentine sports marketing executives, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, have admitted to paying bribes to international football officials to secure lucrative media and marketing rights in one of the major corruption scandals involving FIFA.

The father-and-son duo reached an agreement with United States prosecutors on Thursday that will allow them to avoid trial over fraud charges linked to the wide-ranging FIFA corruption investigation launched in 2015.

Under a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), U.S. authorities agreed to drop the fraud charges against the Jinkises after they admitted to participating in a scheme that defrauded FIFA and the regional football bodies, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL.

The two executives also agreed to forfeit $50 million as part of the agreement.

The Jinkises were co-owners of Full Play, an Argentine sports marketing company accused of using illicit payments to obtain valuable broadcasting and marketing rights for major football competitions.

According to a court filing, the men “agreed to pay and did pay tens of millions of dollars in commercial bribes” to soccer executives in exchange for support “in their efforts to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to various soccer tournaments,” according to a court filing.

The court document stated that the bribes helped the company secure rights to football events, including World Cup qualifying matches and the Copa America.

The Jinkises were among several individuals charged following the 2015 U.S. investigation that exposed widespread corruption within world football and triggered one of the biggest crises in FIFA’s history.

The investigation, which involved raids and arrests of football officials in Zurich, Switzerland, resulted in multiple prosecutions, convictions and guilty pleas involving officials and sports marketing executives.

The latest agreement brings another development in the long-running case, with the Jinkises avoiding trial while admitting their involvement in the bribery scheme.