This content was published on 23 August 2021 – 22:36
New York, Aug 23 (EFE) .- The former president of the Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) Reynaldo Vásquez, linked to the ‘FIFAGate’ case, pleaded guilty this Monday to conspiring to commit organized crime in a New York court, where he was accused of participating in a scheme to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and bribes.
According to a statement from the New York Eastern District Attorney’s Office, Vasquez has confessed that he agreed to receive more than $ 350,000 in bribes, and pleaded guilty to the charges in a virtual hearing before the judge in the case, Pamela Chen.
“With today’s guilty plea, Vasquez admits that he participated in a decades-long conspiracy to commit organized crime to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes that corrupted the game of soccer,” said the Acting Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Jacquelyn Kasulis.
Vasquez, who has also agreed to pay a $ 360,000 mutation and faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years, used a US account to transfer part of the money obtained from the bribes.
The assistant to the director of the FBI in New York, Michael Discroll, stressed that the Salvadoran “has not achieved his dream of wealth and power, and now faces the possibility of spending many years in federal prison.”
“Today’s confession should show others trying to corrupt international football that we play to win.”
The court document indicates that Vasquez is accused of soliciting and accepting bribes in exchange for the award of lucrative media and marketing contracts.
Specifically, it points out that in 2012, together with other former and current representatives of Fesfut, it received about $ 350,000 in relation to the sale of broadcasting and marketing rights for the qualifying matches that were to be held in the country for the World Cup. of 2018.
In addition, he received “tens of thousands of dollars” more in 2014 and 2015 for bribes for the participation of the El Salvador national soccer team in friendly matches in the US.
Vásquez, 65, was extradited to New York last January after having been claimed by the US justice since 2015.
The Salvadoran case is part of a lengthy investigation of international corruption linked to FIFA representatives and associates carried out by the eastern district of New York, which to date has resulted in 27 individuals and 4 corporations having pleaded guilty, and 2 other individuals have been convicted. EFE
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