23 November 2017

FIFAGate Trial: Chiriboga used son to sort bribes

The FIFAGate trial in New York has heard how a South American football federation President used his son as a ‘bagman’ to collect his cash. Former Ecuador FA president Luis Chiriboga was sentenced to 10 years’ jail in Quito last year as is currently under house arrest there pending appeal. He is among more than 40 individuals indicted by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) in the US$200 million corruption investigation.

Former South American football directors Jose Marin (Brazil), Manuel Burga (Peru) and Juan Angel Napout (Paraguay) have all denied charges of fraud and money-laundering. However his son, Jose Luis Chiriboga, had been detained by US agents at Los Angeles airport and ended up signing a collaboration agreement that guaranteed his immunity and right to apply for a visa in exchange for his testimony.

Chiriboga Jr. told the court he had opened a Chase Bank account to receive payments. One such payment, from the scandal-implicated Argentinian agency Full Play, had been deposited before the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) swoop on senior FIFA-linked executives in May 2015.

When the money arrived, Chiriboga would send it on to one of his father’s accounts in Ecuador and, when the bank became suspicious, Full Play invented a fake contract to justify the payments. Chiriboga Jr had also used an account at Biscayne Bank in Florida earlier to receive bribes for his father from 2008 onwards.

• This news article was originally published on Keir Radnedge’s internet site on 22 November 2017. To access the original, please click here.

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