Federal prosecutors have appealed a Brooklyn judge’s decision to toss the convictions of a former 21st Century Fox executive and a sports marketing company tried on corruption charges in a case involving FIFA, the worldwide soccer governing body.
Prosecutors say Brooklyn Federal Judge Pamela Chen got it wrong in September when she cleared Hernan Lopez, the former chief executive officer of Fox International Channels, and co-defendant Full Play sports marketing.
A jury convicted Lopez and Full Play after a seven-week-long trial in March 2023, finding them guilty of wire fraud and money laundering charges for taking part in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme to secure broadcasting rights from FIFA for South American soccer matches.
Chen’s decision to overturn the convictions cited the U.S. Supreme Court case of Joseph Percoco, one-time top aide to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was cleared on a conviction for accepting a bribe while working on the governor’s campaign.
The Supreme Court ruled that jury instructions in the case failed to properly address the fact that Percoco was not on the state payroll at the time of the alleged crime.
Chen wrote “that in light of Percoco, the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain defendants’ honest services wire fraud convictions … because the statute does not apply to foreign commercial bribery schemes.”
In a 101-page filing Tuesday to the Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Busa argued that Chen “misread” the Percoco ruling and another 2023 Supreme Court decision that narrows what can be charged as federal wire fraud. In that case, the court unanimously overturned the bid-rigging conviction of Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli.
, In this courtroom sketch, former Fox executive Carlos Martinez, far left, sits next to his defense attorneys in Brooklyn federal court in January 2023. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)”Neither Ciminelli nor Percoco says anything about foreign bribery or commercial bribery (let alone the court’s new and sweeping concept of ‘foreign commercial bribery’),” Busa wrote.
Lopez and his co-defendants were charged with participating in an “intricate scheme to pay bribes and kickbacks” in return for landing marketing and broadcasting rights for regional soccer tournaments. The jury acquitted a third defendant, ex-Fox executive Carlos Martinez.
The prosecution was part of a long-running corruption probe surrounding FIFA, the world governing body for soccer.
“We are confident the Court of Appeals will sustain Judge Chen’s well-reasoned ruling,” Full Play’s lawyer Carlos Ortiz said Wednesday. Attorney John Gleeson, who represented Lopez, declined comment.