"Every Quid Needs A Quo"

 

Giving the Malignant Fascist that FIFA soccer participation "appease prize" appears to be paying off handsomely:

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have moved to drop charges against a former Fox employee who was convicted of scheming to pay millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for the lucrative broadcast rights to soccer tournaments.

It was the latest turnabout for a case that exposed corruption at the highest levels of international sports.

Hernán López, who was the chief executive of a unit that was responsible for developing Fox’s sports broadcasting business in Latin America, was convicted in 2023 of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. Prosecutors had said Mr. López conspired to pay off the heads of national federations to win the rights to broadcast two South American soccer tournaments.

But on Tuesday, Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, wrote in a letter to the judge who oversaw the case against Mr. López and the Argentine marketing firm convicted along with him, Full Play Group, that dismissing it was in the interest of justice.  [snip]

It was another dramatic swing in a case that arose from a Justice Department investigation into corruption by international soccer officials. Federal investigators began probing corruption at FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, in 2010, but the case burst into the open with a series of high-profile arrests in Switzerland in 2015.

The investigation rocked the world of global soccer. Mr. López and Full Play were indicted five years later and convicted in March 2023 after a seven-week trial.

Prosecutors said that Mr. López took part in a scheme to make secret payments worth millions of dollars to secure the broadcast rights to the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana tournaments. Full Play, according to prosecutors, engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to soccer officials for rights to multiple events over a period of years.

Mr. López also helped Fox beat out ESPN to win the rights to broadcast the men’s World Cup in 2018 and 2022, prosecutors said. Fox has denied involvement in the scheme and was never accused of wrongdoing by prosecutors... (our emphasis)

There's more slime at the (free) link.

In this and many other cases, "the interest of justice" means "the interest of the Malignant Fascist and his corrupt cronies."  FIFA, the most corrupt sports organization in the history of sports organizations, has found a soulmate in the equally corrupt, transactional Malignant Fascist.  They just found the quid pro quo for wiping one scandal involving FIFA federation officials off the books was a cheap prize and medal to a very thirsty, narcissistic MF.

(Photo:  the MF dons his participation prize/ Evan Vucci, AP)