NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A former Fox executive was convicted Thursday of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to nab broadcasting rights to the World Cup and other top soccer matches. A second ex-executive was acquitted.
A Brooklyn federal jury deliberated four days before returning the verdicts. Hernan Lopez, the former CEO of Fox International Channels, was convicted. Carlos Martinez, who headed the Latin America affiliate, was acquitted.
Prosecutors of international soccer. Defense lawyers said the former Fox execs were framed by an admitted criminal who was trying to minimize his own punishment.
An emotional Lopez hugged supporters in the courtroom after hearing the verdict, while his attorneys appeared stunned. The judge allowed him to be released on bail pending sentencing.
John Gleeson, an attorney for Lopez, asserted there were 鈥渓egal and factual errors."
鈥淲e look forward to vindicating our client on appeal,鈥� he said.
Martinez's lawyer, Steve McCool, said 鈥渏ustice was served today for Carlos."
"The jurors heard that he was an innocent man, and that he should never have been here in the first place,鈥� McCool said outside court.
A South American sports media and marketing company also was convicted of graft allegations 鈥� involving different TV rights. Full Play Group SA, incorporated in Uruguay, was accused of paying bribes for the rights to the Copa America, a quadrennial national team competition, as well as to World Cup qualifying matches.
New York-based Fox Corp., which split from a subsidiary of international channels during a restructuring in 2019, was not charged and has denied any involvement in the bribery scandal.
Lopez and Martinez are among dozens of people who have pleaded guilty or been convicted after a U.S.-led investigation into international soccer and its governing federation, FIFA. The probe in 2015, when U.S. prosecutors accused the leaders of soccer federations of tarnishing the sport for nearly a quarter century by taking $150 million in bribes and payoffs.
FIFA went on to expand and rename its executive leadership group. Then-President Sepp Blatter was forced out and replaced by current President Gianni Infantino, the organization has reformed. However, it has in recent years been criticized for tolerating alleged abuse of migrant workers during the construction of World Cup stadiums used in Qatar last year and of maintaining inferior payments and tournament arrangements for women players.
In the Lopez and Martinez case, prosecutors鈥� star witness was the executives鈥� former business associate Alejandro Burzaco. He has cooperated in soccer corruption investigations since his 2015 arrest in a related bribery case.
, Burzaco said he and the two executives paid millions of dollars in bribes to undermine competing bids for the TV rights to the Southern Hemisphere鈥檚 biggest annual tournament, the Copa Libertadores, and help land broadcasting rights to the sport鈥檚 most lucrative competition, the World Cup.
Two jurors who agreed to speak after the trial said Burzaco was not a factor in their decisions.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 find him credible,鈥� said one of the jurors, Robert Rose, who works as an attorney.
Instead jurors relied on reams of documents presented during the case.
Rose said 鈥渋t wasn't tough鈥� to convict Lopez, and jurors wrestled over reaching a verdict for Martinez. In the end, Rose said, 鈥渢here was enough doubt.鈥�
Defense lawyers said Burzaco lied about the former Fox executives to minimize his own conduct and curry favor with the government ahead of his own sentencing. He pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges.
Prosecutors allege the payoffs yielded confidential information from high-ranking soccer officials, including those at FIFA, that enabled Fox to and secure U.S. broadcasting rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed.
Bobby Caina Calvan, The Associated Press
