MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Another FIFA top official enters a guilty plea to four counts of corruption

Hawit admitted he conspired with others to give companies in Florida and Argentina marketing rights to Latin American football tournaments

Alfredo Hawit entered a guilty plea to four counts of corruption including racketeering, wire fraud and obstructing justice. The former vice president of FIFA and former interim CONCACAF president could face a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count of corruption. The 64-year-old Hawit must also forfeit US$ 950,000 to United States Department of Justice when he is sentenced.

 Hawit admitted to the court that he conspired with others to give companies in Florida and Argentina marketing rights to Latin American football tournaments while the companies wire transferred money to his bank accounts in Panama and Honduras.

He is one of 42 people indicted by the DOJ in an ongoing investigation into corruption at world football’s governing body and the 17th to be convicted.

The former chief of the Honduran football federation took over as interim president of CONCACAF when Jeffrey Webb was one of the first FIFA officials indicted by the DOJ last May.

Hawit then followed in his predecessor’s footsteps and was arrested Dec. 3, 2015 during a FIFA raid in Switzerland and extradited to the United States early in 2016. The New York Court granted him bail for US$1 million.