March 22 – Luis Chiriboga, for 18 years president of Ecuador’s FA and one of those indicted in the US-led crackdown on football corruption, is the latest senior official to bite the dust. FIFA have banned him for life for bribery.
FIFA’s ethics committee said it investigated Chiroboga over “schemes in which he received bribes in exchange for his role in awarding contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights to various football tournaments.”
As well as the ban, FIFA’s ethics judges fined Chiriboga, who has already been convicted in his homeland of money laundering and sentenced to 10 years of house arrest, CHF1 million.
Chiriboga, now 72, took illegal payments in exchange for rights connected to the Copa America and Copa Libertadores.
His ban follows the seven-year sanction handed down last week by FIFA to former Guatemalan Football Association president Rafael Salguero.
Ecuador has long rejected requests by American prosecutors for Chiriboga, a former member of the CONMEBOL Executive Committee, to stand trial in the United States since there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.
Back in November 2017, Chiriboga’s son testified against his father in a New York court, admitting he facilitated bribery payments.
José Chiriboga gave an emotional account of how he laundered $2.8 million for his father. “This is the hardest moment of my life,” said Chiriboga, a football agent, recalling how his father, had told him: “Sorry, son, I destroyed your life.”
Chiriboga testified that his father asked him to use his account at Biscayne Bank in a Miami suburb to receive wire transfers. “It was my father asking. I couldn’t say no,” he said.
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