Burga cleared in FIFA corruption case

Dec 26, 2017 - 11:24 PM The former head of football in Peru was acquitted Tuesday in New York on a racketeering conspiracy charge in the first US trial to result from the FIFA corruption scandal.

The federal court jury in Brooklyn returned a not guilty verdict for Manuel Burga, after they concluded prosecutors could not prove the 60-year-old had accepted more than $US4 million ($5 million) in bribes.

The same jury on Friday found two other defendants - former top South American football figures Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay and Jose Maria Marin - guilty on multiple counts.

In addition to racketeering conspiracy, Napout, an ex-president of the South American soccer confederation known as CONMEBOL, was convicted of two counts of wire fraud conspiracy. Marin, the former head of the Brazilian soccer federation, was convicted of three counts of the same, plus two charges of money laundering conspiracy.

After the six-week trial, US District Judge Pamela K Chen remanded Napout and Marin into custody. No date has been set for sentencing.

While the verdicts against Napout and Marin were returned Friday, the jury needed more time to reach a unanimous decision on Burga. All three men were arrested in 2015 following the scandal involving world football's governing body.

More than 40 people and companies have been charged in the investigation, which began with dramatic arrests at a hotel in Zurich near FIFA's headquarters.

Napout was found guilty of accepting $US10.5 million ($A13 million) in bribes since 2010, news reports said. Marin, the former top soccer official of Brazil, was convicted of accepting $US6.55 million ($A8.5 million).

Both accepted bribes in the awarding of television rights as part of what prosecutors have said was a vast network of bribes and kickbacks.

Source: AAP