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US/ Honduras: President admits to bribery in FIFA scandal

By  |  March 28, 2016

A former president of Honduras pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges on Monday, admitting that he solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the wide-ranging FIFA soccer scandal over lucrative broadcast rights.

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    Rafael Callejas, 72, who was a member of FIFA’s television and marketing committee, entered the plea to racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy in Brooklyn federal court.

    He also agreed to forfeit $650,000, payable within a year, for his role in a system so corrupt that hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal payments were made over the past quarter-century.

    “I knew it was wrong for me to ask for and to accept such undisclosed payments,” Callejas told U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy.

    He said he distributed a significant portion of his bribes to delegates of the Honduran soccer federation so he could remain its president, a position he held from 2002 to last August.

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