Ex-Guatemalan Football Federation Head Brayan Jimenez Arrested Amid Corruption Investigation
Former Guatemalan football head, Brayan Jimenez, made the headlines as he was arrested by the Guatemalan police. Jimenez is one of the Latin American football officials that are being tracked after they were issued a warrant of arrest for corruption. As per BBC, Jimenez has been hiding from the authorities since December, but was finally captured.
As per the Daily Mail, the authorities stated that Jimenez was arrested in his apartment. He appeared intoxicated at the time of his arrest. As of Guatemala's prosecutor's office, Jimenez is due to appear in court at the day of his arrest wherein he would be formally charged.
Jimenez is the former head of Guatemala's football federation since 2010. As per the reports Jimenez and the former Fedefut Secretary General Hector Trujillo, who was arrested in the United States in December, accepted the "six digit bribe" for selling television rights for the qualifying matches for the upcoming 2018 World Cup.
Jimenez will be heading to the United States to defend himself from the lawsuit that was filed by the U.S. As per BBC, Jimenez is currently detained in Guatemala City. His lawyer, Francisco Garcia Gudiel, stated that Jimenez would have to defend himself in the US courts. He will not however go against the extradition request.
Gudiel told BBC that, "He will prove his innocence in the courts of the United States."
The need to arrest these individuals was ordered by the Department of Justice due to the fact that the deal which resulted to a corruption scandal was "agreed and prepared in the United States."
As of today, the United Stated has charged around 40 officials that have been part of the FIFA investigation. The first charges were brought to court May of 2015. Alfredo Hawit, the president of CONCACAF and the governing body for North-Central America and Juan Angel Napout, president of CONMEBOL, were also arrested last year as per CNN's report.
In addition to Hawit and Napout, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were also suspended from their duties for 90 days after it was discovered that they were also connected to the FIFA corruption scandal.
The FIFA corruption scandal made it big last year as it was revealed that some officials have been abusing their privileges for personal gain. As per CNN, the charges included money laundering and wire fraud which are being linked to corruption. The FIFA corruption was first discovered by the authorities mid-year of 2015. The bribes summed up to a total of more than $150 million.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com