FIFA gives life ban to Ecuador official for bribery
ZURICH (AP) — The FIFA ethics committee has given a life ban to a South American soccer official who took bribes linked to the Copa America and Copa Libertadores.
FIFA says Luis Chiriboga, a former Ecuador soccer federation president, has also been fined 1 million Swiss francs ($1 million). It is unclear how FIFA can enforce payment.
Though the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Chiriboga in 2015, he was later convicted in his native Ecuador of money laundering. He was sentenced to 10 years of house arrest.
Chiriboga also figured in a 2017 trial at federal court in Brooklyn in the sprawling American case.
He was identified as “Toyota” in a ledger of off-the-books payments to soccer officials assigned a car manufacturer as code names by Argentine marketing agency Full Play.
In court, one witness said a $500,000 payment to Chiriboga was labeled “Q2022” — an apparent but unexplained reference to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
