April 7 – Colombian match agent Miguel Trujillo is the latest official to have formal proceedings opened against him by FIFA’s ethics watchdog after pleading guilty last month in the United States to four counts of wrongdoing, including conspiracy to commit money-laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Last month Florida-based Trujillo, who also admitted to filing a false tax return, agreed to forfeit $495,000 and was released on a $1.5 million bond saying: “I know that what I was doing was wrong.” He is one of 42 people and entities indicted in the scandal which which continues to lay bare a plethora of crimes.
A statement from the ethics committee said: “Having examined all of the relevant evidence and based on Miguel Trujillo’s guilty plea before the federal court in New York, the investigatory chamber has opened formal proceedings against Mr Trujillo. As a licensed FIFA match agent, he was bound by the FIFA Code of Ethics.
“The investigatory chamber will investigate payments from Mr Trujillo to several football officials. The chairman of the investigatory chamber, Dr Cornel Borbély . . . will examine all relevant evidence and hand over the case report in due course, along with recommendations, to the adjudicatory chamber.”
Trujillo has been a FIFA match agent since 2006 and the original statement from the US DoJ about the charges facing him said: “Starting in approximately 2008 and acting variously on behalf of multiple sports marketing companies and his own soccer business, Trujillo paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to high-ranking officials of FIFA, CONCACAF, and four soccer federations in Central America and the Caribbean in furtherance of multiple schemes involving media and marketing contracts and international friendly matches.”
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