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Two former executives of a 21st Century Fox subsidiary are set to go on trial beginning this week on charges that they bribed FIFA officials to secure broadcasting rights to soccer matches, the latest in a string of U.S. prosecutions alleging wide-ranging corruption in the sport’s international governing body.
Hernan Lopez
and
Carlos Martinez,
defendants in a Brooklyn federal court, are accused of working with others to make millions of dollars in illicit payments and kickbacks between 2000 and 2015 to South American soccer officials in exchange for the broadcasting rights to the region’s most popular club tournament, the Copa Libertadores, and other matches.
Federal prosecutors also allege the two men relied on loyalty secured through the bribes to obtain confidential information regarding bidding for the rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments in the U.S. Fox later paid more than $400 million for the English-language rights to broadcast the two tournaments in the U.S.
The indictment doesn’t allege that Fox used the information, and the company hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.
Messrs. Lopez and Martinez, who have pleaded not guilty, left their 21st Century Fox roles several years ago. The trial is expected to offer a window into the corporate culture of the company at the time of the allegations.
Mr. Lopez, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Argentina, was chief executive officer of subsidiary Fox International Channels. Mr. Martinez, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, was president of Fox International Channels, Latin America. Their lawyers, who declined to comment, previously called the allegations vague and accused the Justice Department of overreach in policing foreign business conduct.
Hernan Lopez, in a 2014 photo, is one of the defendants accused in connection with payments to soccer officials.
Photo:
Tonya Wise/Invision/Associated Press
Lawyers for Mr. Lopez have previously said they intend to show that in 2014 he helped initiate an internal audit after a Fox competitor made bribery allegations. Mr. Lopez acted in good faith throughout the internal investigation, they said.
Walt Disney Co.
acquired major entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox from
Fox Corp.
in 2019. Fox International Channels was absorbed by Disney as part of the deal. Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent
share common ownership.
“This case involves a legacy business that has no connection to the new Fox Corporation,” a Fox spokesman said. “We have cooperated fully and respect the judicial process.”
A representative for Disney didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Full Play Group SA, a sports marketing company operating out of Argentina, is also a defendant in the trial and faces the same charges for the alleged Copa Libertadores scheme. Full Play is additionally charged with participating in a conspiracy involving bribes to secure the rights to some World Cup qualifying events.
A lawyer for Full Play said the company is looking forward to starting the trial but declined to comment further. The company’s lawyers previously have said that the countries where the alleged crimes took place, including Argentina and Paraguay, didn’t have commercial bribery laws at the time.
The case is the latest in a sprawling, decadelong corruption investigation that U.S. law enforcement has said involves two generations of soccer officials at the highest echelon of the sport and more than $200 million in bribes.
The Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office has secured at least 27 individual guilty pleas over the span of the probe, including from high-ranking soccer officials, businessmen and a former managing director at a Swiss bank. Among them was former top FIFA official Charles “
Chuck” Blazer,
who admitted to taking bribes in connection with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup. Mr. Blazer’s cooperation with prosecutors helped lead to more than a dozen indictments in 2015. He died in 2017.
Two South American soccer officials were also found guilty of racketeering and other charges after a monthlong trial in 2017 in which prosecutors alleged the men took millions of dollars in bribes. A third defendant in the trial was acquitted.
Argentine businessman Alejandro Burzaco, shown in a 2015 courtroom drawing of a federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been cooperating with prosecutors in the coming trial.
Photo:
jane rosenberg/Reuters
One witness in that case was
Alejandro Burzaco,
the head of an Argentine sports-media company who was also an executive in T&T Sports Marketing Ltd., a joint venture that was partly owned by a 21st Century Fox subsidiary. Mr. Burzaco, who will also testify at the coming trial, previously pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with prosecutors.
Mr. Burzaco told jurors at the 2017 trial that he helped arrange $160 million in bribes to about 30 people, including payments intended to secure broadcasting rights for Fox.
Write to James Fanelli at james.fanelli@wsj.com
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