An American soccer television network sued Fox Sports Latin America in federal court Thursday, alleging that Fox executives had paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to FIFA officials in South America in exchange for lucrative television rights to soccer tournaments.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, accuses Fox Sports executives of participating in a scheme involving money laundering, offshore shell companies and illicit wire transfers to Swiss bank accounts.
GolTV, a Florida-based soccer network that repeatedly lost out on the television rights to tournaments that Fox Sports aired, filed the suit.
“This is an entirely meritless claim. Fox had no operational control over any of the entities named in the FIFA indictment, and no Fox employees were implicated,” Fox Network Group said in a statement. “As for GolTV, it has been attempting without success to challenge the award of rights to Fox that were negotiated after the FIFA indictment, with full transparency to CONMEBOL,” the FIFA organization that oversees soccer in South America. “This lawsuit will fail just as GolTV’s previous efforts have failed.”
According to the complaint, Fox Sports paid bribes to secure the television rights to the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana, two popular tournaments featuring club teams from across South America and Mexico . Fox executives channeled the money through T&T Sports Marketing, Ltd., a Cayman Islands shell company that was part-owned by Fox and Alejandro Burzaco, an Argentine businessman facing criminal charges as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s ongoing case against dozens of FIFA executives and their business associates. Burzaco has pleaded not guilty.
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The lawsuit names Carlos Martinez, president of Fox Networks Group Latin America ; Hernan Lopez, former CEO of Fox International Channels ; and James Ganley, former chief operating officer of Fox Pan American Sports, as involved in bribery and money laundering. Efforts to reach Martinez, Lopez and Ganley on Friday afternoon were unsuccessful.
In 2002, the lawsuit alleges, Fox Sports Latin America acquired an ownership stake in T&T Sports Marketing. From 2005 through 2015, the complaint states, Fox executives channeled millions in bribes through T&T to several officials at CONMEBOL. The bribes would be paid through “consulting” contracts between T&T and companies controlled by CONMEBOL officials, the complaint states.
CONMEBOL repeatedly awarded the television rights to tournaments to T&T, which then turned the rights over to Fox Sports, according to the lawsuit.
“Fox employees not only knew of the bribes paid to CONMEBOL . . . they were personally involved in authorizing and facilitating the payment of those bribes,” the lawsuit states. “For example . . . Ganley signed many of the sham ‘consulting’ agreements . . . that channeled bribes to CONMEBOL’s directors.”
Among several CONMEBOL officials named is Eugenio Figueredo, a former FIFA vice president who was among dozens of global-soccer executives detained in a dramatic early-morning raid of a luxury hotel in Zurich in 2015.
Figueredo, 84, was extradited to his native Uruguay, where he has pleaded guilty to charges including taking bribes. In Figueredo’s plea agreement with Uruguayan prosecutors, obtained by The Washington Post, he states that “according to his opinion, the company FOX was behind all the illegal negotiations and he indicates a manager whose last name was Martinez as the one responsible.”
In the lawsuit, GolTV’s attorneys allege that Fox’s Carlos Martinez is the manager implicated. Prosecutors in Uruguay did not reply to requests for comment. Figueredo’s lawyer, Karen Pintos, declined to comment.
In exchange for the bribes, CONMEBOL officials made business decisions that cost club teams and players across South America hundreds of millions of dollars, the lawsuit alleges. (CONMEBOL’s revenues flow down to club teams and their players.)
In 2010, GolTV offered CONMEBOL $270 million for the rights to both tournaments for 2011 to 2014, according to the lawsuit. T&T offered $164 million, and CONMEBOL went with T&T.
In 2012, GolTV offered $805 million for the tournaments’ rights from 2015 to 2020. CONMEBOL again instead went with T&T, which offered $416 million.
In 2013, GolTV offered $2.1 billion for the rights to three CONMEBOL tournaments for seven years, the lawsuit states. CONMEBOL went with T&T’s offer of $560 million.
will.hobson@washpost.com
Caselli reported from Buenos Aires.
