U.S. Agrees to Pay More Than $200 Million to FIFA, Affiliates

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to provide FIFA, soccer’s governing body, and two affiliates about $200 million for being victims in a long-running international investigation and prosecution of corruption.

The payments stem from a 2015 probe against sports-marketing executives and officials from the Federation Internationale de Football Association, which expanded into a global inquiry. The department announced on Tuesday it has granted the organizations a joint petition for remission and approved an initial disbursement of $32.3 million in forfeited funds. U.S. prosecutors have agreed to eventually pay the victims more than $201 million.

The money, from assets forfeited by defendants, will be distributed “through the remission process to victims of crimes, including to the soccer organizations that employed and were defrauded by the corrupt soccer executives,”  the Justice Department said in a statement.

“To date, the prosecutions have resulted in charges against more than 50 individual and corporate defendants from more than 20 countries, primarily in connection with the offer and receipt of bribes and kickbacks paid by sports marketing companies to soccer officials in exchange for the media and marketing rights to various soccer tournaments and events,” the department added.

Along with FIFA, the payments will go to Concacaf, the confederation responsible for soccer governance in North and Central America; Conmebol, which is responsible for soccer governance in South America; and various constituent national soccer federations, the department said.

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