Former Argentine businessman Alejandro Burzaco has been sentenced for his testimony which led to the U.S. convictions of South American soccer officials and a television executive in the massive corruption scandal around FIFA. Alejandro Burzaco is the former head of the Argentine sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias.
Burzaco pleaded guilty in 2015 to three counts of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy and has since agreed to work with federal prosecutors in Brooklyn as per Reuters. Neither the details of his plea agreement nor the prosecutors' recommended sentence are public information.
U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen will determine Burzaco's sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court starting at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT). The 58-year-old Argentine has admitted to bribing officials at FIFA and regional affiliates for marketing rights to tournaments including the World Cup and Copa America.
Alejandro Burzaco also expressed that Qatar bribed FIFA officials for the hosting rights of the 2022 World Cup, which the Middle Eastern country denies. The Argentine’s statement launched many convictions since U.S. and international authorities made their first arrests in 2015. Later in 2017, Burzaco expressed that he bribed Juan Angel Napout, the former head of CONMEBOL, former Brazilian FA head Jose Maria Marin, and former Peru football federation president Manuel Burgato to secure rights to matches.
Since then Napout and Marin were convicted and Burgato was found not guilty. This year Burzaco also testified about two former 21st Century Fox executives - Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez and accused them of bribing FIFA officials for broadcasting rights. Lopez and the Full Play Group SA were convicted and Martinez was exonerated of the charges.
