New York: A US judge jailed the 86-year-old former Brazilian football boss Jose Maria Marin for four years, branding him a ‘cancer’ on the world’s most popular sport in the sweeping FIFA corruption scandal.
Marin was found guilty in connection with nearly USD 6.6 million in bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for contracts to broadcast major tournaments like the Copa America and the Copa Libertadores.
He was one of seven FIFA officials arrested at a luxury hotel in Zurich May 27, 2015, and the first defendant sentenced after being convicted at trial in the United States in connection with the scandal that disgraced world football.
“Mr Marin says he loves the sport, yet he and his co-conspirators were the very cancer on the sport he claims to love,” Judge Pamela Chen said during the sentencing hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.
“His crime was one of pure and unmitigated and unchecked greed,” she added. “He abused the trust of the soccer organizations that he was bound to serve. He took millions of dollars in bribes that he didn’t need,” added Chen, condemning Marin for failing to recognize what he did was wrong.
In addition to sentencing him to four years behind bars, Chen ordered Marin to pay a fine of USD 1.2 millions and return the nearly USD 3.4 millions in bribes that he personally pocketed as part of his years of criminal dealings.
