NEW YORK (AP) — The US government’s key witness in a corruption lawsuit over broadcast rights to some of football’s biggest events testified Wednesday how he and two former Fox executives paid millions of dollars in bribes to undermine competing bids.
The New York City trial is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that stretched back nearly a decade and involved more than three dozen executives and employees in the world’s most popular sport.
Witness Alejandro Burzaco alleges that he and former Fox executives Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez conspired to bribe South American football officials for the television rights to the Southern Hemisphere’s largest annual tournament, the Copa Libertadores, and to help secure the broadcast rights to most sports acquire lucrative competition, the world championship.
“The bribes served that purpose very well,” Burzaco testified.
Lawyers for Lopez and Martinez have claimed the former executives are being framed, with a defense attorney accusing Burzaco of orchestrating the bribes.
On his first day on the witness stand Wednesday, Burazco told the court about the bogus contracts made with football officials to channel the bribes.
He said the payments that Lopez and Martinez are accused of making to officials at the South American soccer confederation helped Fox edge out competitors and secure the rights to tournaments at below-market prices.
Lopez, a native of Argentina, is a former CEO of Fox International Channels and later ran a podcasting company. Martinez, a native of Mexico, ran the channel’s Latin American subsidiary.
Another sports media and marketing company, Full Play Group SA, is on trial with Lopez and Martinez, but the bribery allegations against that company affect other TV rights. Full Play, incorporated in Uruguay, is accused of paying bribes for the rights to the Copa America, a four-year national team competition, and World Cup qualifiers.
Prosecutors are expected to question Burzaco until at least Friday, after which it will be the turn of the defense attorneys.
New York-based Fox Corp., which spun off a subsidiary of international broadcasters as part of a reorganization in 2019, has denied any involvement in the bribery scandal and has not been charged in the case.
The company said in a statement that it fully cooperated and respected the court process, noting that before the corporate reorganization, the international channels were part of what was then known as 21st Century Fox.
“This case involves a legacy business that has no connection to the new FOX Corporation,” the statement said.
So far, more than two dozen people have pleaded guilty and two people have been convicted in court in connection with a US-led investigation into tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks at the highest level of football. Four companies have also pleaded guilty. Four other companies were charged but made arrangements with the government to avoid prosecution.
The governing body of the football world, FIFA, said it was not involved in any fraud or conspiracy and was just a bystander as the scandal unfolded.
Still, the scandal has put the organization under global scrutiny. Since then she has been trying to polish her tarnished image.
Last month’s World Cup final in Qatar, in which Argentina defeated France in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, was the most-watched football match of all time in the United States, according to television viewers.
During Tuesday’s opening arguments, Assistant US Attorney Victor Zapana told jurors millions of dollars in bribes fed a system of secret, no-offer contracts that “allowed disloyal football executives to live a life of luxury.”
Prosecutors allege that the payouts allowed Lopez and Martinez to get Fox confidential information from senior football officials, including those at FIFA, that allowed their $425 million bid to beat rival ESPN and grab the U.S. Secure broadcast rights for the world 2018 and 2022 mugs.
Burzaco is a former business partner of the two men and ran an Argentine marketing firm. He has cooperated in previous football corruption cases to avoid jail time, critics say, following his own bribery arrest in 2015.
Burzaco has pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy and other charges. He testified in 2017 that all three South Americans on the FIFA Executive Committee accepted millions of dollars in bribes to support Qatar’s bid for the recently concluded 2022 World Cup.