On December 14, 2015, seven agents from the Judicial Police Brigade Investigation Group of the Supreme Police Headquarters in Catalonia delivered documents to the Central Court No. 3 of the National Court, which they found during a search of the office’s headquarters. Catalan businessman Gerard Romy is in Barcelona. US authorities, especially FBI and a New York CourtTogether with the prosecution, they started what is known. FIFA Gateinquiry about Allegations of corruption within the International Football Federationbut also about the selection of Qatar as the venue for the 2022 World Cup and therefore requested the Spanish Justice to search the Imagina World company headquarters on Avenida Diagonal to find evidence of possible bites.
And that evidence included a hard drive from which the agents copied several folders they found on Romy’s computer. “Champions”, “AL Qualifiers”, “Copa América”, “Footb Rights”, “FIFA”, “Golfo”, “Imagina”, “Inversiones”, “Medialuso”, “FIFA Offer”, “Tournaments and Competitions” and “UEFA”, as stated in the aforementioned documents that El Periódico de España from the Prensa Ibérica group has access to. These statements were sent to the United States Justice, who tried Romy.
The log of entry to the office states that the agent wrote this and showed that he did not agree with Romy’s actions during the search: “It is stated that the person under investigation was not in the office that was the subject of the search and started searching. according to the requirements of the undersignedmust exist in the registry”, can be read.
FBI presence
However, during a search of her office it is Romy herself. “It explains to the FBI which folders on the computer might be relevant to the case.The police document remains, assuring that it is inside a computer folder called “these tests”.Saudi Arabia“.
Among the documents of the “FIFA-Gate” case accessible to this newsroom, an order dated December 14, 2015, shows the evidence against Romy, a partner of Jaume Roures, also a Catalan businessman: “The U.S. Attorney General’s Office of the FBI and U.S. Internal Revenue From the results of the investigations he conducted with the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Imagina Group, it is understood that the Spanish national Gerard Romy, among other people investigated, cooperated. bribes, kickbacks and other forms of illegal payments accepted and/or facilitated Payments to International Football Federation (FIFA) officials and laundering of bribe proceeds”.
The United States investigation found that, according to the order of the National Court, several individuals Between 2008 and 2015, executives from Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala were “bribed” in exchange for selling broadcasting rights to their national federations. and marketing for World Cup qualifiers.
a Spanish company
These bites, always by car, were paid for by the firm Media World LLC. a company from Miami (USA), a subsidiary of Imagina US, which is part of a business group headquartered in Barcelona. “As a shareholder of Imagina US, Gerard Romy was aware of the bribery scheme and accepted it.“It finalizes the decision.
A strictly protected witness explained Romy was tasked with traveling to Miami to learn about his efforts to obtain the broadcast rights. different Central American football federations. “During these interviews, the protected witness He regularly reported to Romy about bribes paid on behalf of Media World. The order of the National Court continues, reminding the officials of the UNCAF federations that to obtain the rights to the qualifying matches of the World Cup, “assured that the witness met with Romy and that they would use consulting contracts to hide irregular payments.”
In 2012, a company related to Spanish Imagina agreed to bribe Caribbean Football Association director Jeffrey Webb for three million euros for a $23 million contract:The two companies signed a separate agreement to share the cost of paying the bribe. […]. It was Gerard Romy for the Media World.“, who has entered into an agreement to share the cost of the bribe”, concludes the above-mentioned order authorized by the National Court.