CONMEBOL asks the justice to expedite FIFA Gate cases to recover what was lost

At the close of the 80th Ordinary Congress of CONMEBOL, the organization received and examined the detailed report presented by its legal representative, Claudio Lovera, on the progress of the criminal case against Banco Atlas, investigated for alleged money laundering linked to the FIFAGate scandal. With this step, the leadership reaffirmed its commitment to recovering the funds diverted from South American football by corruption, as well as to pursuing legal actions against those responsible.

In this context, Lovera explained that, based on a forensic audit, key information was obtained about the financial and administrative movements between 2000 and 2015. Through a statement, CONMEBOL formally requested the Justice to advance with the legal cases to achieve the return of the "football money".

The audit allowed the identification of at least four suspicious maneuvers that would have caused economic damage to the entity. One of the most relevant was the direct transfer of approximately 28 million dollars from the South American entity's accounts to Nicolás Leoz's personal accounts at Banco do Brasil.

During his intervention before the close of the Congress, Alejandro Domínguez, president of the entity, emphasized: "We are the only institution that recovered ill-gotten money and in this way we were able to reinvest in football. But what remains true is that there is still football money in the financial system and this president, with this administration, will not give up until recovering the last cent and dollar that belong and belonged to the players, the referees, the coaches, the physical trainers, that is, to all the members of a football team and the fan".

After that audit conducted in 2016, in June 2017 a criminal complaint was filed with the Public Ministry of Paraguay, based on the evidence gathered up to that point. Thus, CONMEBOL became the only football Confederation in the world to carry out a forensic audit and, moreover, the one that has managed to recover the most money: about U$S 130 million of the total audited.

Later, in 2020, CONMEBOL's legal area accessed new information about significant deposits made by Nicolás Leoz at Banco Atlas in 2013, the same year he left his positions at Conmebol and FIFA. Despite the volume of the operations, the banking entity did not activate the controls required by the current anti-money laundering regulations.

Already in 2016, with an international arrest warrant in force against Leoz by the United States for crimes such as money laundering, Banco Atlas agreed to establish million-dollar trusts with the former executive, again without applying the due diligence required by the legislation.

Faced with this scenario, and after the criminal complaint filed by Conmebol in 2021, the Public Ministry concluded that there were sufficient elements to initiate a criminal action, which led to the raid of Banco Atlas's headquarters due to its lack of cooperation, as well as a request for cooperation from the US Justice.

In the conclusion of his report, Lovera indicated that Conmebol is currently awaiting a resolution from the Public Ministry that will allow advancing with the criminal prosecution of the events.

The Congress delegates highlighted the Confederation's commitment to transparency after FIFAGate. In the words of Pablo Milad, president of the Chilean Association: "we have to validate and value what has been done from FIFAGate to today in Conmebol. It has been a transparent, communicative, and economically very effective evolution for everyone. And that is something to be appreciated and thanked".