02-17-2020, 03:35 AM
NEW YORK -- The former head of the Costa Rican soccer federation pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy and other charges accusing him of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to award lucrative marketing contracts.Eduardo Li became the latest soccer official to plead guilty in a scandal thats shaken FIFA, the sports governing body. Its believed several of the officials are cooperating in the sprawling U.S. investigation.Appearing in federal court in Brooklyn, the 57-year-old Li detailed through a Spanish interpreter several schemes in which he pocketed a fortune in under-the-table payments between 2007 and 2015 in exchange for using his authority to influence soccer-related business deals.In one deal, Li said he was offered $500,000 to award marketing rights for qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Qatar. He said he ended up getting $300,000, which he channeled to the bank account of a business partner to pay a real estate debt.In another, he said unnamed intermediaries in Panama gave him $237,000 in cash to give a U.S. company the rights to sponsor uniforms for the Costa Rican national team.I knew it was wrong of me to accept such undisclosed payments, Li told U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen.Li also admitted embezzling $90,000 in funds related to hosting an international girls soccer tournament in Costa Rica.He faces up to 20 years in prison but could receive much less time under sentencing guidelines. He has agreed to forfeit $668,000.Li, who was arrested last year in Zurich, is among about 20 soccer officials indicted in the corruption case. More than a dozen have pleaded guilty, while another eight are fighting extradition from overseas.No sentencing date was set for Li, who remains free on bail. Larry Johnson Jersey . 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Nolan punched Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu in the jaw in front of the Kings goal during a scrum. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was deposed Tuesday in a civil lawsuit against the Pilot Flying J truck-stop chain, which is owned by his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, and other family members.According to a court notice filed in Franklin County, Ohio, the deposition that was originally to be videotaped at a Knoxville, Tennessee, law office was moved to the conference room at the Pilot Aviation hangar at that citys airport.The lawsuit was filed by companies that declined to participate in an $85 million settlement between Pilot and 5,500 trucking companies in connection with a scheme to cheat customers out of promised discounts and rebates. The company also paid a $92 million federal penalty in an agreement with prosecutors in which the company accepted responsibility for the criminal actions of its employees.Ten former Pilot employees have pleaded guilty in the scheme, and the companys former president and several others face trial next year in federal court.I knew nothing about the misconduct of some of our former employees, Pilot CEO Jimmy Haslam said in a statement following the deposition. I wish I could discuss this entire matter freely with you today and answer your questions as I did the plaintiffs..dddddddddddd. I cant do that yet.The depositions were not open to the public.Haslam attorney A. B. Culvahouse said in a statement that his client has done everything within his power to understand what happened and to make things right by his customers.We think this entire exercise today was nothing more than an effort by the plaintiffs to harass the company into a windfall settlement, he said.The scheme became public after federal agents raided the companys headquarters in April 2013. A 120-page FBI affidavit unsealed after the search contained transcripts of secretly recorded conversations among the sales team deriding some trucking clients as unsophisticated, lazy and undeserving of rebates.Pilot Flying J is the nations largest diesel retailer with annual revenues of about $30 billion.Bill Haslam has said he has not been involved with operating Pilot Flying J since he left the company to run for Knoxville mayor in 2003. But his family continues to own a majority share in the privately held company, and the governor has kept his personal share outside of a blind trust established for his other investments. ' ' '