A 63-year-old former Guatemalan football official was handed an eight-month jail term Wednesday, the first person sentenced by a US judge over a massive corruption scandal that rocked world soccer two years ago.
The US investigation, first unveiled in May 2015, has seen federal prosecutors in New York indict around 40 football and sports marketing executives with allegedly receiving tens of millions of bribes and kickbacks.
Like many of the indicted, Hector Trujillo cut a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of wire fraud conspiracy in a US federal court in Brooklyn four months ago.
On Wednesday, Judge Pamela Chen ruled that Trujillo, the former general secretary of Guatemala's Football Federation from 2009 to 2015 and ex-judge on the country's constitutional court, will start his sentence November 20 in Florida.
Trujillo walked into the courthouse dressed in a dark suit, stripey tie and pale blue shirt, and wearing sunglasses despite the overcast October skies.
US prosecutors had recommended a minimum sentence of just over three years and for Trujillo to pay back $415,000 to the Guatemalan soccer federation.
Chen said Trujillo would have to foot the $415,000 bill with his co-defendants.
