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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

FIFA Match Agent Pleads |Guilty to Corruption

(CN) - A Colombian match agent licensed by FIFA on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering, wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

Miquel Trujillo, a legal permanent resident of the United States who lives in Florida, entered his guilty plea in Brooklyn Federal Court.

As part of his deal with prosecutors he agreed to forfeit $495,000 to the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn.

According to prosecutors, beginning in 2008, Trujillo paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to high-ranking FIFA officials, as well as soccer federations in Central America and the Caribbean, to secure lucrative media and marketing contracts for himself and multiple other sports marketing companies.

Trujillo is the 13th person to plead guilty after an unprecedented investigation founded that scores of soccer officials and the heads of affiliated businesses paid more than $200 million in bribes to influence the awarding of tournament marketing rights, the locations chosen for World Cup matches and more.

A grand jury in Brooklyn has indicted dozens more.

The scandal stemming from criminal investigation in the United States and Switzerland hastened the departure of longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has since been banned from any role in international soccer.

Trujillo's attorney, Joseph Steven Rosenbaum, declined to comment on the case.

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