BROOKLYN — A federal judge said Wednesday she would dismiss the cases against a former Fox executive and sports marketing firm that were both convicted in 2023 of bribing soccer officials for lucrative broadcasting rights.
The decision comes after the Department of Justice made a rare request to drop the case in December, stating that it no longer falls within the Trump administration’s priorities.
“Six years, a case that never should have started is finally over,” defendant Hernán López, the former CEO of Fox International Channels, told reporters after the hearing.
The biggest event in global soccer, the World Cup, kicks off in two weeks and will be broadcast on Fox in the United States.
U.S. District Court Judge Pamela Chen in the Eastern District of New York held a hearing on Wednesday, which is the anniversary of the Geneva raids from the 2015 FIFA probe. Along with López, the other defendant was Argentine company Full Play Group. Earlier this month, the company’s former owner and CEO and his son came to the U.S. after years of avoiding prosecutors to negotiate a possible plea deal, The New York Times first reported.
