Argentina’s $112.8M Sports Settlement and FIFA Corruption

Argentine sports media company Torneos y Competencias S.A. agreed on December 13, 2016 to pay more than $112.8 million to resolve U.S. criminal charges tied to a 15-year scheme of bribing South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights. The Torneos y Competencias FIFA settlement took the form of a four-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, under which the company admitted to a wire fraud conspiracy, paid $89,062,616 in forfeiture and a $23,760,000 criminal penalty, and committed to cooperate with the ongoing FIFA investigation.¹

What Torneos Admitted To

Torneos acknowledged paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks over a decade and a half to officials at FIFA, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, and the Argentine Football Association. The payments bought exclusive media and marketing rights to some of the sport’s most valuable properties in the Americas.¹

The Copa Libertadores sat at the center of the scheme. For more than a decade, Torneos executives paid annual bribes to CONMEBOL officials so that T&T Sports Marketing Ltd., a Cayman Islands affiliate co-owned by Torneos, could keep its grip on the tournament’s broadcasting rights. Payments were routed through shell companies, intermediaries, and currency dealers to hide their origin. Court records from a related case say T&T began the payments around 2002 to acquire rights “far cheaper than market value,” using sham consulting contracts to move the money.¹²

Starting around 2010, Torneos also began paying a senior official who held positions at FIFA, CONMEBOL, and the AFA at the same time. Those payments secured broadcasting rights for the 2018, 2022, 2026, and 2030 World Cups for a Latin American broadcasting affiliate and Torneos’s own subsidiary, TyC International. Prosecutors said the official was incentivized to push for early sale of the 2026 and 2030 rights before bidding could turn competitive.¹

The Copa América was another major target. In 2013, Torneos helped create Datisa S.A. with the Traffic Group and another Argentine sports marketing firm. Datisa then paid tens of millions in bribes to CONMEBOL and CONCACAF officials to lock down media and marketing rights for the 2015, 2019, and 2023 Copa América tournaments, along with the 2016 Copa América Centenario hosted in the United States.¹

How the Deferred Prosecution Agreement Works

Under the agreement, the government filed a criminal information charging Torneos with one count of wire fraud conspiracy but agreed to defer prosecution for 48 months. If the company met all its obligations during that window, the DOJ would move to dismiss the charge.¹

The financial terms broke down into two pieces. The $89,062,616 in forfeiture was held in reserve to satisfy potential restitution orders in the broader FIFA prosecution, United States v. Jeffrey Webb et al. The $23,760,000 penalty was paid as a straight criminal fine.¹

Money was not the only obligation. Torneos admitted to the full scope of the 15-year bribery scheme, accepted responsibility for the criminal conduct of its senior executives and employees, and agreed to cooperate fully with the government’s continuing investigation. The company also had to install enhanced internal controls, adopt a corporate compliance program, and file annual compliance reports. By the time of the deal, Torneos had already fired its entire senior management and brought in a new general manager, chief financial officer, legal director, and chief compliance officer.¹

Why the Company Got a Deal: Alejandro Burzaco’s Cooperation

The corporate settlement did not happen in a vacuum. Alejandro Burzaco, Torneos’s controlling principal and former CEO, was among those indicted when U.S. authorities unsealed the FIFA case on May 27, 2015. He pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges later that year and then spent roughly eight years working with federal investigators.³⁴

Burzaco testified for 15 days across two trials, first in the 2017 case that convicted CONMEBOL president Juan Ángel Napout and Brazilian football confederation president José María Marín, and again in the 2023 trial of former Fox executives and Full Play Group. On May 12, 2023, U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen sentenced him to time served with no prison, no supervised release, and no fine. She called his cooperation “nothing short of breathtaking” and described him as the “linchpin” of an investigation that produced roughly two dozen public guilty pleas. Prosecutors said his assistance was the most extensive of any single source in the case. The judge also noted the cooperation had endangered his life and made it impossible for him to return to Argentina.⁴⁵

How the Broader FIFA Case Turned Out

Torneos was one of the largest corporate resolutions in a prosecution that ultimately charged more than 50 individual and corporate defendants. Prosecutors originally described a scheme in which sports marketing firms paid or agreed to pay over $150 million in bribes to officials at FIFA, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, and national football associations. By August 2021, the DOJ had recognized $201 million in losses and begun returning forfeited funds to victims, with a $32.3 million initial distribution followed by about $92 million more in June 2022.³⁶

The rival Argentine firm Full Play Group S.A. followed a very different path. Full Play and former Fox International Channels head Hernán López were convicted by a jury in March 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In September 2023, Judge Chen granted López’s motion for acquittal and overturned Full Play’s conviction, relying on the Supreme Court’s May 2023 decision in Percoco v. United States to hold that the honest-services wire fraud statute did not reach the foreign commercial bribery alleged. A federal appeals court reinstated the convictions in the summer of 2025, but the DOJ moved that December to dismiss the case “in the interests of justice,” with a U.S. attorney saying the prosecution did not fit with the administration’s priorities. On May 27, 2026, Judge Chen dismissed the indictments against López and Full Play with prejudice. Prosecutors said the move was “limited to this case” and that the government was not seeking to walk back convictions or guilty pleas reached with other defendants.⁷⁸⁹¹⁰

None of that later activity disturbed the Torneos deal. The company had already admitted its conduct, paid, and cooperated.

What Happened to Torneos After the Settlement

Torneos survived the scandal and kept operating in the Argentine sports media market with its rebuilt leadership. In 2021, Grupo Werthein acquired full ownership of Vrio, the parent of DirecTV Latin America, which held a stake in Torneos.¹¹ Grupo Werthein later bought out the Nofal family’s interest to take full control of Torneos and, in May 2026, acquired Grupo Clarín’s remaining 50 percent stake in the sports broadcaster TyC Sports for $25 million, consolidating Argentina’s major sports programming assets under a single ownership group.¹²

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Argentine Sports Marketing Company Admits Role in International Soccer Bribery Conspiracy
2
The New York Times. Second Circuit Ruling in FIFA Case
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Nine FIFA Officials and Five Corporate Executives Indicted for Racketeering Conspiracy and Corruption
4
Courthouse News Service. No Prison Time for Key FIFA Bribery Witness
5
Bloomberg. Ex-Banker Who Paid FIFA Bribes Avoids Prison by Aiding Crackdown
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Announces Additional Distribution of Approximately $92 Million to Victims of FIFA Corruption
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Former 21st Century Fox Executive and Argentina-Based Sports Marketing Company Full Play Convicted
8
Sportico. Judge Tosses Conviction of Fox Exec in Soccer Bribery Case
9
Variety. Hernan Lopez Cleared as Bribery Indictment Dismissed
10
CNN. FIFA Case: Bribery Not a Priority
11
Señal News. Grupo Werthein Completes the Acquisition of DirecTV Latin America
12
Buenos Aires Times. Clarín: Argentine Media Vampire Squid Lives On