New York, Dec 7 (AFP) A Brazilian businessman told a USFederal Court that he helped set up a huge bribe to SouthAmerican football officials to secure the rights for a newtournament.
Fabio Tordin testified in New York at the trial of threeSouth American football executives charged in connection withthe largest graft scandal in world soccer history.
Tordin was one of 42 people indicted in the FIFAcorruption mega-scandal. He pleaded guilty in 2015, agreed toreturn $600,000 and is now cooperating with the US governmentagainst the only three accused in the dock.
Their trial began last month.
Jose Maria Marin, 85, former president of Brazil'sFootball Confederation; former FIFA vice president Juan AngelNapout, 59, of Paraguay; and Manuel Burga, who led soccer inPeru until 2014, are charged with racketeering, wire fraud andmoney laundering conspiracies.
Tordin said that at a lavish farm on a summer night inUruguay, three other top officials, from CONCACAF, thefootball federation for North and Central America and theCaribbean, accepted nearly $500,000 from Argentinian sportsrights company Full Play -- but the tournament never saw thelight of day.
According to Tordin, the deal was set up by him andMiguel Trujillo, a Colombian football consultant with links toFull Play's owners, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis.
His account matched Trujillo's, who earlier told thecourt that he helped set up bribes between Argentine sportsmarketing companies and CONCACAF.
- Massages - ============Tordin said that after lunching at the beach he,Trujillo, and CONCACAF bosses Alfredo Hawit, Rafael Salguero,and Ariel Alvarado returned to Jinkis' "beautiful" countryhouse.
The aim was to "convince the (CONCACAF bosses) that FullPlay could be the marketing arm of CONCACAF," he said.
"Full Play agreed to pay $300,000 for the officials inexchange for them signing the document," said Tordin, addingHawit, as president of CONCACAF, later said he "deserved"$150,000 more -- bringing the total payment to $450,000.
Later in 2011, after a night of dancing and dining inBuenos Aires, the three CONCACAF bosses enjoyed a trip to anultra-exclusive resort via private jet, Tordin added.
He also revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars inbribes were paid via banks in Panama to former senior figuresin Honduran, Costa Rican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan football.
Tordin said that he and Trujillo would sometimesexaggerate the amounts of the bribes to their bosses at eventsmanagement company Media World, in order to keep a cut forthemselves.
Another government witness was Nelson Sanabria, ex-assistant to Napout, a past president of the South AmericanFootball Confederation (CONMEBOL).
He told the court his former boss was fond of massages,manicures and pedicures -- appointments arranged by hisdiscrete chauffeur.
The three accused have pleaded not guilty.
A total of 24 accused have already admitted their guiltin the case outlined in a 236-page complaint detailing 92separate crimes and 15 corruption schemes to the tune of $200million.
US prosecutors announced the indictments on May 27, 2015,exposing a quarter-century of endemic corruption in the heartof FIFA, soccer's governing body. (AFP)ATK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.