The former head of Brazil's soccer federation was found guilty on six of seven charges against him at trial on Friday.
Jose Maria Marin was accused by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn of accepting more than $6 million in bribes in exchange for lucrative sponsorship and television rights to tournaments. Some of the bribe money was routed through a New York bank account.
A jury found against Marin, 85, after deliberating for about a week following the month-long trial in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Marin's convictions included counts of racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. He was not found guilty of an additional count of money laundering.
Marin was on trial along with co-defendants Juan Napout, 59, of Paraguay, South America's former top soccer officials, and Manuel Burga, 60, of Peru, the former top official there.
On Tuesday, a jury acquited Burga of a racketeering conspiracy charge. The 60-year-old wept when his verdict was announced, according to the Associated Press, and said he would return to being a lawyer.
“My history in soccer is finished,” the former president of Peru’s soccer federation said. “I’ll go back to the law.”
Each defendant in the case faced different charges: Marin faced seven, Napout five, and Burga one. Napout was found guilty on three charges.
Earlier on Friday, the jury told the judge it had reached verdicts on every count but one.
The judge remanded Marin and Napout to jail for the time, saying, "I don't find clear and convincing evidence they won't flee before sentencing." She also noted that sentencing guidelines "are on order of at least 10 years, by my own estimation."
Charles Stillman, Marin's lawyer, said after the court hearing that, "We're terribly disappointed, but to quote Winston Churchill, 'we will never, ever, ever, give up.'" Asked about the judge's estimation that sentencing would be 10 years, he said "that has no reality to it."
"By conspiring to enrich themselves through bribery and kickback schemes relating to media and marketing rights, among other schemes, the defendants deprived FIFA, the confederations, and their constituent organizations — and, therefore, the national member associations, national teams, youth leagues, and development programs that relied on financial support from their parent organizations — of the full value of those rights," prosecutors said in a criminal indictment.
Marin's lawyer, Charles Stillman, countered during closing statements on Dec. 14 that his client never agreed to take bribes and did not need the money since he was already wealthy.
Prosecutors submitted hundreds of pages in court documents and bank records to back up their claims against Marin, including $1.5 million in payments made between July and September 2013 to a New York account with Morgan Stanley for Copa America broadcast contracts.
Prosecutors said Marin used money from the account to pay personal expenses like $20,977 spent at Hermes in Paris and $50,000 at Bvlgari in Las Vegas.
The money was allegedly passed on to Marin through offshore accounts owned by a Brazilian mogul.
Prosecutors added that the funds originated from Argentine company Torneos, which was a rights buyer of Copa America. The company allegedly paid nearly $7 million in bribes.
The trial included testimony from singer Kevin Jonas to confirm he attended a 2010 Paul McCartney concert in Buenos Aires. Napout was charged with accepting tickets worth more than $10,000 to the concert while he was the president of two soccer federations.
Marin, who owns an apartment in New York in Trump Tower, was busted at Zurich's ritzy Baur au Lac in May 2015.
He has been living under house arrest since being extradited back to New York to face federal charges.
The ex-soccer leader was also facing racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering counts.
Reporting by Jake Offenhartz and Ben Fractenberg in Brooklyn and Ken Bensinger in Los Angeles.