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Thursday November 28, 2024

Former Ecuador football boss handed 10-year jail sentence

By our correspondents
November 20, 2016

QUITO, Ecuador: An Ecuadorean court gave a 10-year jail sentence to former national football federation president Luis Chiriboga for corruption on Friday in another case stemming from the scandal at world governing body FIFA.

Chiriboga, 70, who ran the football federation for 18 years but has been under house arrest since late 2015, was convicted of money-laundering along with two others at the organization.

He is one of about 40 soccer bosses, mainly Latin Americans, implicated in U.S.-led investigations that have rocked FIFA.

Judge Miriam Escobar said about $6.1 million had passed illegally through Ecuador’s football federation.

Her court in the capital Quito ordered the three soccer officials to pay back double that and to give up properties.

Lawyers for the men said they would appeal. Chiriboga, who has denied the charges, would be likely to serve his sentence at home given his advanced age.