By Andrew Warshaw
February 11 – One of the original ‘Zurich Seven’ detained in the first wave of arrests in May that kicked off the biggest corruption scandal in the history of FIFA has been refused bail in a Brooklyn court.
Eduardo Li, former president of the Costa Rican Football Federation, promised unsuccessfully he would not flee if he were released pending possible trial after having spent nine months in Swiss and US jails.
“I’ve had a work relationship with the United States my whole life,” said Li, who owns a freight-forwarding business in his home country. “My son and my daughter have studied here, and I have no intention of absconding,” he added, speaking in Spanish through a translator. “I want a chance.”
Li proposed he be freed on $5 million bail, $300,000 of it payable in cash but Judge Robert Levy said that was not enough and scheduled a new hearing for February 23.
Prosecutors opposed Li’s proposal, calling instead for bail of $10 million to $15 million, with $5 million to $7 million of that payable in cash. The rest would be in the form of property in the United States.
Li’s arrest in May came two days before he was to have been elected to the FIFA executive committee representing CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America as well as the Caribbean.
He was initially held in Switzerland while he fought extradition to the US but in December he dropped his appeal. He was extradited in December to face charges of fraud and money laundering and has pleaded not guilty.
After Honduras’ Alfredo Hawit, the suspended president of CONCACAF, was moved to house arrest last week, Li is now the only suspect left behind bars in the United States.
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