Convictions of FIFA officials upheld by US appeals court

The criminal convictions of former soccer officials Juanngel Napout and Jos Maria Marin have been upheld in a 3-0 decision by a U.S. federal appeals court.

Napout and Marin argue principally that their convictions rest upon impermissible extraterritorial applications of the honest services wire fraud statute, the panel wrote in a decision announced Monday.

Judges Robert D. Sack, Peter W. Hall and Joseph F. Bianco of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the convictions involve domestic applications. ... that are sufficiently clear under the circumstances. 

Napout was convicted on Dec. 22, 2017, of one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, and he was taken into custody that day. He was sentenced to nine years in prison the following Aug. 29 and the 62-year-old is being held at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Miami.

Napout was president of the South American governing body CONMEBOL from August 2014 until December 2015, president of the Paraguayan Football Association from 2007-14 and a member of FIFA's executive committee.

Marin was convicted of three counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of money laundering conspiracy and one count of racketeering conspiracy, charges related to the Copa America, Copa Libertadores and Copa do Brazil. 

He was sentenced to four years in prison in August 2018 and left the Allenwood Low Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania on April 2, three days after his request for compassionate release was granted by U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen. Marin turned 88 on May 6.

Marin was governor of So Paulo from May 1982 to March 1983 and was president of the Brazilian Football Confederation from March 2012 to April 2015. He also served as president of the local organizing committee for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Both were arrested in 2015 while attending FIFA meetings in Zurich. 

Image credits: AP