{"id":68454,"date":"2025-12-12T05:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/68454\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T05:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:09:13","slug":"us-prosecutors-seek-to-abandon-soccer-tv-rights-corruption-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/68454\/","title":{"rendered":"US prosecutors seek to abandon soccer TV rights corruption case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former 21st Century Fox executive Hernan Lopez arrives at federal court in Brooklyn, Jan. 17, 2023, in New York. Photo: John Minchillo\/AP<\/p>\n

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN \u2014 After a yearslong legal battle, U.S. prosecutors told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that they want to give up their fight to preserve the convictions of a former Fox executive and South American sports media company in a corruption case related to TV rights for international soccer tournaments.<\/p>\n

Hernan Lopez, ex-CEO of Fox International Channels, and Full Play Group SA\u00a0were convicted<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 after a trial in New York but subsequently granted an acquittal by a judge. An appeals court\u00a0reinstated the convictions<\/a>\u00a0in July, but additional appeals followed and the fate of the prosecution had been uncertain.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors told the Supreme Court the government has now determined that \u201cdismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,\u201d though they did not expand on their rationale. They asked for the case to be sent back to a lower court so it can consider a motion to dismiss the indictment.<\/p>\n

Lopez said in a statement that he was grateful for the move to dismiss the charges and looking forward to putting the matter behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges were baseless from the start, and I have fought for five years to clear my name,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

An attorney representing Full Play declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Lopez and Full Play were among dozens accused by U.S. investigators in a yearslong investigation into international soccer and its governing federation, FIFA. The probe\u00a0burst into view<\/a>\u00a0in 2015, when U.S. prosecutors accused officials in multiple soccer federations of taking $150 million in bribes and payoffs.<\/p>\n

During Lopez\u2019s trial, witnesses said he was one of a number of executives who orchestrated bribes to officials at CONMEBOL, the governing body for soccer in South America, that helped Fox get broadcasting rights to the Copa Libertadores South American club championship. Bribes arranged by Lopez also helped Fox obtain confidential information about bids for rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments, prosecutors aid.<\/p>\n

In recent years, though, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has made it more difficult to secure certain types of corruption convictions. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has also overhauled its\u00a0approach to fighting<\/a>\u00a0graft.<\/p>\n

The federal government has moved this year to slash a section of Justice Department prosecutors responsible for pursing cases of fraud and corruption against public officials. Trump previously\u00a0paused a statute<\/a>\u00a0that prohibits people or companies operating in the U.S. from giving money or gifts to officials in other countries to win or retain deals.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is set to host the 2026 World Cup along with Canada and Mexico. Trump, a Republican, has a close relationship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and last week was awarded a\u00a0new FIFA peace prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fox Corp., which split from a subsidiary of international channels during a 2019 restructuring, was not charged in the bribery scandal and has denied any involvement. ___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show that Trump was awarded the new FIFA peace prize last week, not this week.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\t
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"View
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCoalition forms to defend Raise the Age ahead of potential rollback<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 11 |
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJacob Kaye\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NYPD
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNYPD agrees to stricter practices on immigration enforcement following probe<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 11 |
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreg B. Smith, Gwynne Hogan and Yoav Gonen, THE CITY\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cleveland
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz face May trial date in gambling case<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 11 |
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhilip Marcelo, Associated Press\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"From
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHistoric Brooklyn Bar Association annual dinner honors Gregory Cerchione, Administrative Judge Genine Edwards and Regina Skyer<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 11 |
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWayne Daren Schneiderman\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\tLeave a Comment\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former 21st Century Fox executive Hernan Lopez arrives at federal court in Brooklyn, Jan. 17, 2023, in New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,12267,35523,9,24,63,400,29515,3333],"class_list":{"0":"post-68454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-fox","12":"tag-hernan-lopez","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-soccer","17":"tag-u-s-district-court-for-the-eastern-district-of-new-york-edny","18":"tag-u-s-supreme-court"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}