Two sports marketing companies fined $1 million in U.S. FIFAgate trial

Two sports marketing companies founded by Brazilian entrepreneur Jose Hawilla, a key witness in the massive FIFA corruption scandal, were fined 500,000 U.S. dollars each Monday, Brooklyn prosecutors said.

Traffic Sports International and Traffic Sports USA, which were founded by the late Brazilian businessman, had pleaded guilty to paying top soccer officials bribes for the promotional rights to major Latin American soccer tournaments.

Hawilla, who died last May at the age of 74 in Brazil, had emerged as a central witness for the prosecution in the lengthy case at a federal court in Brooklyn.

The trial wound up with the conviction of the two of the three accused, the former president of the Brazilian football federation, Jose Maria Marin, and the ex-head of the Paraguayan football federation and of the South American confederation Conmebol, Juan Angel Napout.

The entrance of the headquarters of Traffic Sports in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 27, 2015 /VCG Photo

Most of the 42 senior figures charged in the vast FIFAgate case by the US Justice Department were South American, although several Americans were charged, including Chuck Blazer, who also became a key FBI witness before dying in July 2017.

Many of the accused pleaded guilty in the New York court in a case which exposed tens of millions of dollars in bribes being paid by sports promotion companies to senior figures in South American soccer federations, in return for broadcast rights and other promotional events.

As well as having to pay fines, Hawilla's companies were sentenced to a year's probation, although they had already agreed to shut down their operations as part of their plea deal agreement.

(Cover photo via VCG: The owner of Traffic Group, Jose Hawilla attends a meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 30, 2009.)