By Andrew Warshaw
November 4 – Like Jeffrey Webb before him, former Brazilian powerbroker Jose Maria Marin pleaded not guilty to corruption charges when he appeared in a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday following his extradition from Switzerland.
Marin, a key organiser of the 2014 World Cup in his home country, was one of the infamous ‘Zurich seven’ arrested in May in that dramatic dawn raid on their hotel just before the FIFA congress which sparked the worst crisis in FIFA’s history.
A judge agreed to release the 83-year-old defendant on $15 million bail and let him live with tight restrictions in a New York apartment until his case is resolved.
An ill-looking Marin, who was apparently accompanied by US police officers on a flight from Zurich to New York, listened to the court proceedings through an interpreter and later embraced his wife, who was required to sign the bail conditions. He then left the courtroom without speaking to reporters while his lawyer, Charles Stillman, said he and his client would be “preparing to deal with the charges”.
In July, Webb, the former CONCACAF president, also pleaded not guilty and was released on $10 million bail. He is currently under house arrest while the five remaining defendants are appealing Swiss extradition orders.
The FIFA officials were among 14 individuals named in a remarkable US indictment alleging their involvement in bribes of more than $150 million linked to the award of broadcasting and hosting rights over 24 years.
Ironically Marin was appointed to head the 2014 World Cup local organising committee after the resignation of Ricardo Teixeira, who was implicated in a previous FIFA scandal for taking million-dollar kickbacks from World Cup broadcasting deals.
He also succeeded Teixeira as president of the Brazilian FA in 2012 where he stayed until April 2014.
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