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    Nike Seen Avoiding Charges in Soccer Bribery Probe

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    Smart Jay
    Nike may avoid charges in the soccer bribery probe related to a 1996 Brazil sponsorship deal. While Nike was not directly named or charged, details in an indictment match those of Nike's landmark Brazil deal. Legal experts say prosecutors are more likely to charge those who solicited bribes rather than those who paid them. If Nike payments were made through U.S. accounts or records were falsified, charges around money laundering or inaccurate accounting could potentially apply.

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    Nike Seen Avoiding Charges in Soccer Bribery Probe

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    Smart Jay
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    Nike may avoid charges in the soccer bribery probe related to a 1996 Brazil sponsorship deal. While Nike was not directly named or charged, details in an indictment match those of Nike's landmark Brazil deal. Legal experts say prosecutors are more likely to charge those who solicited bribes rather than those who paid them. If Nike payments were made through U.S. accounts or records were falsified, charges around money laundering or inaccurate accounting could potentially apply.

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    Nike may avoid charges in the soccer bribery probe related to a 1996 Brazil sponsorship deal. While Nike was not directly named or charged, details in an indictment match those of Nike's landmark Brazil deal. Legal experts say prosecutors are more likely to charge those who solicited bribes rather than those who paid them. If Nike payments were made through U.S. accounts or records were falsified, charges around money laundering or inaccurate accounting could potentially apply.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    29 views4 pages

    Nike Seen Avoiding Charges in Soccer Bribery Probe

    Uploaded by

    Smart Jay
    Nike may avoid charges in the soccer bribery probe related to a 1996 Brazil sponsorship deal. While Nike was not directly named or charged, details in an indictment match those of Nike's landmark Brazil deal. Legal experts say prosecutors are more likely to charge those who solicited bribes rather than those who paid them. If Nike payments were made through U.S. accounts or records were falsified, charges around money laundering or inaccurate accounting could potentially apply.

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    Nike seen avoiding charges in soccer bribery probe

    NEW YORK May 29 Nike Inc may be able to


    avoid U.S. charges over any involvement in bribery payments to
    win soccer sponsorships, but could face penalties if U.S.
    prosecutors decide to clamp down on the global sportswear giant,
    lawyers with expertise in the subject said.
    Although Nike has not been named or charged with any
    wrongdoing, the company was swept into the corruption scandal
    that engulfed soccer's governing body FIFA when a U.S.
    indictment released on Wednesday described apparent kickback
    payments linked to a landmark 1996 Nike deal in Brazil.
    In a statement on Thursday, Nike said that the charges did
    not allege that it engaged in criminal conduct or that any Nike
    employee was aware of or took part in a bribery scheme. On
    Wednesday, in another statement, it did not confirm or deny that
    it was the company in the indictment, but said it was
    cooperating with authorities.
    The description of the $160 million, 10-year deal signed by
    "Sportswear Company A" matched exactly the details of Nike's
    agreement to become the footwear and apparel supplier and
    sponsor of the world's most successful national soccer team.
    Still, the U.S. Justice Department is likely to take a
    tougher stance against those who solicited bribes than those who
    paid them, especially if a company did not have a long history
    of paying bribes, said former U.S. federal prosecutor Michael

    Volkov.
    "Where the case is going, it's not focusing as much on the
    people who were shaken down as it is on the people doing the
    shaking," Volkov said.

    While the 14 defendants in the indictment are being charged


    with crimes such as money laundering and wire fraud, the United
    States has normally prosecuted U.S. businesses for foreign
    bribery under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
    That law's anti-bribery provisions apply to dealings with
    governments and government officials and may not be of much use
    in the soccer world because soccer associations are typically
    not government agencies. The Brazilian Football Confederation
    (CBF), which signed the http://cie.calpoly.edu/members/n4spec3tor/bio/default.aspx 1996 deal with
    Nike, is a private
    organization.
    "The FCPA does not prohibit private bribery," said Homer
    Moyer, who specializes in FCPA cases at the law firm Miller
    Chevalier in Washington.
    If Nike is thought to have paid bribes by transferring funds
    from a U.S.-based account, the Justice Department might consider
    charging the company with "international promotional money
    laundering," said a former official with the Justice
    Department's money laundering section.
    While seldom used in the past, prosecutors have made
    increased used of this charge in recent years, said the source,

    who spoke on condition of anonymity due to his private sector


    work.
    Prosecutors could employ a provision of the FCPA that
    requires companies to keep accurate accounting records. If the
    sportswear company in the Brazil deal disguised or hid
    wrongdoing in its books, it may have violated the law, lawyers
    said.
    MASSIVE SETTLEMENTS
    The indictment came less than three weeks after U.S.
    President Barack Obama co-opted Nike's "just do it" slogan in a
    speech promoting a Pacific free-trade deal at the company's
    headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
    The charge sheet said that "Sportswear Company A" agreed to
    pay an additional $40 million in "marketing fees" that were not
    in the initial contract to the Swiss bank account of an
    affiliate of Brazilian sports marketing firm Traffic.
    Traffic's founder Jose Hawilla, whose guilty plea to U.S.
    corruption charges was revealed at the same time as the
    indictment, agreed in 1996 to pay half of everything he made
    from the deal to an unidentified senior member of the CBF,
    according to the Department of Justice.
    That amounted to "millions of dollars, as a bribe and
    kickback," the indictment said.
    U.S. prosecutors have used the FCPA to extract massive
    settlements, often with foreign businesses.
    In 2009, the U.S. engineering company KBR Inc agreed

    to a $579 million settlement over bribes paid to Nigerian


    government officials.
    Separate from the FCPA, foreign and U.S. banks have paid
    billions of dollars in settlements with U.S. authorities over
    sanctions-busting activities and anti-money laundering failures
    in recent years. A number of non-banks have also been targeted
    by regulators or the Justice Department over anti-money
    laundering failures.
    The indictment also alleged that a New Jersey-based "Sports
    Marketing Company A" paid bribes to the head of South American
    soccer association CONMEBOL in exchange for gaining exclusive
    marketing rights to the Copa Libertadores tournament.
    Asked Wednesday if companies that had won soccer marketing
    rights faced criminal liability or were being investigated,
    Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she could not comment on
    specific investigation targets.
    (Additional reporting by Brett Wolf.; Editing by Noeleen Walder
    and Stuart Grudgings)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/29/soccer-fifa-nike-idUSL1N0YJ22E20150529

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