Guatemala captures Brayan Jimenez for corruption, fraud and money laundering in FIFA

By Staff Writer | Jan 14, 2016 08:13 AM EST

Guatemalan police arrested Brayan Jimenez, former national soccer federation president, on January 12. The detention was linked to the corruption into the sport's world governing body, FIFA. Brayan was with other accused, Hector Trujillo, who was captured last month for also taking bribes in the said federation.

According to Reuters, the police have captured Jimenez in Torre Sol, an apartment building in Guatemala City. After the arrest, the accused was due to appear in court later on Tuesday to face his formal charges. Hector Trujillo, former secretary general of the Guatemalan soccer federation, was also one of the accused who took a bribe from FIFA. The latter person was arrested in December in the United States.

Times of India also mentioned that Jimenez's attorney told to the reporters at the courthouse that he was happy to bring the case to the United States. It was quoted in the report, "We are not going to ask for a substitute measure," defense attorney Francisco Garcia said. "We will prove innocence in the United States courts."

Further, Yahoo News via Reuters noted that the physical look of Jimenez has changed. This was compared from his last media appearance in December. The report said that he had white hair, mustache, and beard on Tuesday. This was far from his black hair and a shaven face before.

On the other hand, there were more soccer officials that have been charged by the United States' authority in terms of corruption that was going on in FIFA and across the soccer world. As lately reported by Huffington Post, FIFA has fired Secretary General Jerome Valcke on January 9 due to allegedly corrupting the World Cup ticket sales.

Altogether, related report mentioned that there were 41 people and sports entities, including top FIFA officials, who have been charged by U.S. prosecutors for offenses including corruption, fraud and money laundering.

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