Ex-Ecuador FA official gets year in jail as part of FIFA probe

QUITO (Reuters) - A former head of logistics at Ecuador's Football Federation (FEF) was sentenced on Tuesday to a year in prison for money-laundering, a case arising from investigations in the Andean nation prompted by the FIFA corruption scandal.





"Judge Ana Lucia Cevallos declares Vinicio L. (Luna) guilty of being a co-author of the laundering of assets in the Ecuafutbol case," the state prosecutor said on Twitter.

The judge also fined Luna $64,800 and seized $32,400 in goods - a car and a motorcycle - whose purchase he could not justify.

Luna's lawyer said his client was innocent of money-laundering. "We justified all income, expenses and use of money," Edison Cadena told journalists after the sentencing.

Enmeshed in the worst scandal in its history, FIFA has been cracking down on wrongdoing. Over 40 individuals and entities, including many former senior FIFA officials, have been charged with graft-related offences in the United States.

One of them is FEF's ex-president Luis Chiriboga, whose indictment in December led authorities in Ecuador to order his house arrest while he faces money-laundering charges.





(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


Share

1 min read

Published

Source: Reuters



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world