New York (AFP)
The former president of the Salvadoran football federation Reynaldo Vasquez was extradited Friday to the United States, where he will have to answer charges of corruption before the American justice.
Indicted in November 2015 with dozens of other executives or former football officials in the so-called "Fifagate" affair, the man is accused of receiving bribes from a marketing company.
These six-figure dollar amounts were intended to secure Media World the rights to broadcast qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup, as well as marketing rights.
Reynaldo Vasquez is to be presented Friday afternoon, via videoconference, to Brooklyn federal judge Pamela Chen, who handled all Fifagate cases in the United States, said the services of Brooklyn federal prosecutor Seth DuCharme.
Salvadoran football boss from June 2009 to July 2010, he first had to answer in his country for crimes committed in El Salvador, which explains the delay between his indictment and his surrender to the American authorities.
He was sentenced in March 2017 to eight years in prison by a Salvadoran court for embezzling approximately $ 400,000 in social security contributions.
In early October 2019, Reynaldo Vasquez was found guilty of corruption by Fifa, suspended for life from all football-related activities and fined 500,000 Swiss francs (approximately $ 490,000).
About forty natural and legal persons have been indicted by the American justice within the framework of Fifagate, for the most part South Americans.
Many pleaded guilty, which saved them a trial, but some wanted to defend themselves before a jury.
The former head of the Paraguayan federation Juan Angel Napout was notably sentenced to a nine-year prison sentence, the heaviest handed down by American justice.
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