South American Soccer Files Complaint Over Missing $130 Million

(Bloomberg) -- South American soccer's governing body filed a complaint to Paraguay's public prosecutor, alleging at least $129.7 million was embezzled from the organization's accounts when it was run by three officials charged by U.S. officials in the FIFA corruption scandal.

The group, known as Conmebol, based close to Paraguay's capital Asuncion, is requesting prosecutors help it claw back the missing funds which were discovered following a forensic audit carried out by international accountancy firm EY.

The majority of the money was diverted during the 27-year reign of former longtime president Nicolas Leoz, the complaint said. Leoz, who stepped down in 2013, is under house arrest in Asuncion, fighting extradition to the U.S. after being indicted with dozens of other soccer leaders and sports executives on charges including tax evasion, money laundering and wire fraud.

“We have proof that the money was diverted from Conmebol by a network of world corruption,” a lawyer representing the soccer body told Brazil's O Globo newspaper. “We now want the authorities to investigate where it went and how it was used.”

The U.S. case centers around a bribery scheme linked to lucrative television and sponsorship controlled by the two regional soccer bodies responsible for the sport in the Americas. Several officials have already pleaded guilty to being part of the decades-long pay-to-play scheme, in which rights to tournaments were transferred at less than market price in return for millions of dollars in bribes.

Read more: Corruption scandals cast pall on World Cup

Conmebol's complaint also names Leoz's two successors, Eugenio Figueredo and Juan Angel Napout. Both men were arrested by Swiss authorities in separate raids before FIFA meetings in Zurich. Figueredo is under house arrest in his native Uruguay, where he's cooperating with authorities after pleading guilty to a series of corruption charges. Napout, who denies the charges against him, is awaiting trial in the U.S.

According to the documents submitted to Paraguayan prosecutors, Leoz transfered $27 million into two bank accounts, one under his name and another in the name of NL Stevia SA, a company controlled by his family. A further $33 million was transferred between 2000 and 2004 from Conmebol to bank accounts in Panama and the Cayman Islands.

The complaint also says the three former presidents made payments worth more than $68 million to 21 companies identified in the U.S. corruption cases.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in London at tpanja@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Janet Paskin at jpaskin@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe