Bail tightened for official in FIFA soccer bribery case
NEW YORK — A judge tightened bail conditions on a South American soccer official charged in the FIFA bribery scandal after prosecutors surprised the courtroom by accusing the defendant of threatening their star witness by making a slashing motion on his neck as the witness testified at trial.
The dramatic twist in federal court in New York came after Alejandro Burzaco, a former marketing executive from Argentina, spent the day accusing Manuel Burga and two other soccer official co-defendants of taking bribes in exchange for their help securing broadcasting and hosting rights for tournaments.
Burzaco testified that his firm gave Burga, the former president of Peru’s soccer federation, $3.6 million in bribes during the course of their relationship. He claimed that when he agreed in 2015 to co-operate against officials charged in the case he became the target of death threats.
After news of Burzaco’s co-operation broke in Argentina, his brother, a former law enforcement officer, called him with inside information that authorities there had received “an instruction to shut me down,” he testified, choking back tears. That meant something needed to be done “for me not to say anything in the U.S., including killing me,” he added.