FIFA chief bags four-year jail term in US

By Daily Sports on August 23, 2018

A US federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Jose Maria Marin, the 86-year-old former head of the Brazilian football federation, to four years in an American prison over the massive FIFA corruption scandal.

Marin was found guilty on December 22 in connection with nearly $6.6 million in bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for contracts to broadcast major tournaments like the Copa America and the Copa Libertadores.

He was one of seven FIFA officials arrested at a luxury hotel in Zurich on May 27, 2015, and one of only two defendants convicted at trial in the United States in connection with the scandal that disgraced world football.

US Judge Pamela Chen said in Brooklyn federal court that Marin was “a cancer” that corrupted the world’s most popular sport, both at home in Brazil and across the planet.

“He could have and should have said no,” she said at the sentencing hearing.

Marin cried and was very agitated during the proceedings, before calming down.

The former president of the Brazilian football federation was convicted on six counts of racketeering, money laundering and bank fraud, and has been awaiting his sentence ever since from behind bars.

US prosecutors had asked Chen to impose a sentence of 10 years in prison and a $6.6 million fine. Citing his age and frail health, his defense attorneys sought a sentence of just 13 months.

Marin spent five months in a prison in Switzerland before being extradited to the United States.

He posted bail of $15 million and spent two years living in luxury at Trump Tower, the Fifth Avenue skyscraper best known for housing the penthouse and company headquarters of the US president.

US prosecutors lifted the lid on a quarter of a century of endemic corruption in the heart of FIFA, football’s governing body, and on the largest graft scandal in the world’s most popular sport.

In total, 42 officials and marketing executives, as well as the sports company Traffic, were indicted with corruption crimes totaling more than $200 million.

Marin’s 2017 trial exposed not only the corruption, but the life of privilege, luxury and excess enjoyed by members of FIFA’s executive committee.

Prosecutors detailed a high-flying lifestyle for the sport’s bigwigs: personal chauffeurs, private jets, luxury hotels, meetings in idyllic resorts in the Bahamas or Mauritius, and cruises on the Danube for families.

At trial, defense attorneys depicted Marin as an innocent, unsuspecting elderly man that Brazil’s football federation tapped out of the blue to fill the vacancy left by the sudden resignation of the powerful Ricardo Texeira.

They argued that Marin did nothing without the guidance of his right-hand man, Marco Polo del Nero, with whom prosecutors said he shared bribe payments.

Of the 42 individuals originally indicted in connection with the FIFA scandal, three have since died and 22 have pleaded guilty. Two have been convicted including Marin and one was acquitted.

Another 14 remain in their own countries, where they have been tried by local courts, are fighting extradition or are still free.

Photo shows Marin

Source Daily Sports

Posted August 23, 2018


 

You may also like...
Ibrahimovic Launches Coronavirus Fund

All eyes on match officials as Enyimba battle...

Okowa’s Aide Goes Home

Complacency Nigeria’s greatest threat on road to Russia...

Liverpool Escape FA Punishment In ‘Spy’ Row With...

AFCON qualifier win, good start for resurgent Super...

 

Latest News Nigeria beat Cameroon to reach IHF final 27 schools for Doregos Basketball Championship Super Falcons to play France’s Les Bleues in friendly SWAN suspends ban on coverage of Anambra FA activities Joshua among boxing’s top three earners in 2024 Oshoala makes history with Bay FC Nnamani hails team over IHF bright start Flamingos lift U-17 W’Cup Fair Play Trophy Rangers Intl, SWAN partner on sports collaboration in SE LAGOS SWAN CELEBRATES AIG ZONE 2 ON HIS BIRTHDAY AND 30 DAYS IN OFFICE Traders Cup: Upholstery Soccer Team Secured 2nd Win To Advance To Round Two Lagos SWAN Celebrates Oba Akiolu, Iyaloja General, AIG Fayoade

 

Most Read Rangers International going, going . . . (55,140 views) Amaju Pinnick: A cat with nine lives (46,267 views) Second Term: Amaju Pinnick, Other NFF Heavyweights Home to Roost •How Pinnick Broke the Jinx (44,349 views) Missing $150,000 IAAF Grant: Solomon Dalung’s Hide and Seek game (43,988 views) Sports Development: Zenith Bank on the zenith (43,930 views) Current issues in Nigerian sports: Matters arising (43,876 views) Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje’s solid footprints, commitment to sports development in Kano State (43,717 views) NFF Presidency: Pinnick, Maigari, Ogunjobi, Okoye in Battle for Supremacy (43,286 views) Olopade, BET9A wave of revolution in NNL (42,331 views) Commonwealth Games 2018: Shame of Muhammadu Buhari, Solomon Dalung (41,034 views) Ibrahimovic’s Man U exit: Whose decision is it? And in whose interest? (39,486 views) John Mikel Obi: Segun Odegbami’s Outrageous Call! (38,915 views)

 

Phone numbers

Tel: +234(0)8066020976
+234(0)8055068145
+234(0)7013416146
+234(0)8094272884

Email addresses

info@dailysportsng.com
support@dailysportsng.com
publisher@dailysportsng.com

Office address

No 3, Adetoun Close, Off College Road, Ogba, Ikeja Lagos.
Website: www.dailysportsng.com

Social Media