A sign on the offices of Imagina is shown in Miami, Florida December 3, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Florida-based unit of the Spanish sports media group Imagina on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of bribing Latin American soccer officials and was ordered to pay more than $24 million (£18.09 million), the latest penalty imposed in the sprawling U.S. investigation of corruption at world soccer's governing body FIFA.
At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen, US Imagina LLC general counsel Erika Lucas said that beginning around 2008, the company bribed officials of the national soccer federations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). She said the company paid the bribes to secure media and marketing rights to qualifying matches for the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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