Jinkis father-son pair meet in Brooklyn over FIFA corruption case
After a decade as fugitives, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis have surfaced in Brooklyn, where prosecutors are pressing a plea deal that could expose more FIFA bribery ties.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are negotiating with Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis, a father-son pair from Argentina who were charged in the FIFA corruption investigation and then spent more than a decade out of reach before agreeing to meet in New York.
The Jinkises sit at the center of one of the longest-running strands of FIFAgate. Hugo Jinkis owned Full Play Group S.A., a Buenos Aires-based sports marketing company incorporated in Uruguay, and his son Mariano Jinkis was also charged in the case. U.S. prosecutors said Full Play took part in schemes to bribe officials at FIFA, CONMEBOL and, in some instances, CONCACAF in exchange for valuable media and marketing rights, including rights tied to the World Cup.
Their sudden willingness to appear in Brooklyn gives prosecutors a rare chance to close a case that has outlasted the original wave of arrests by years. The Jinkises surrendered in Argentina in 2015, but an Argentine judge blocked their extradition to the United States, leaving them beyond the immediate reach of the American case while legal and diplomatic pressure continued to build around them.
The Brooklyn talks matter because they come at a moment when the broader FIFA probe is still producing legal fallout. In March 2023, a Brooklyn jury convicted Hernan Lopez and Full Play Group S.A. in a related FIFA bribery case, a result prosecutors framed as another step toward accountability for the commercial corruption that spread through international soccer. The Justice Department has said the case against Full Play involved efforts to control lucrative broadcast rights and expand Fox Sports’ reach into South America.
That wider litigation has not ended the dispute over how far U.S. fraud laws can reach in foreign commercial bribery cases. Appeals and later court fights have kept the FIFA saga alive, sustaining pressure on defendants, witnesses and corporate partners long after the original arrests. For prosecutors, a plea resolution with the Jinkises could do more than settle another file. It could still uncover unresolved networks of payments and influence that helped turn global soccer broadcasting into a market for bribes.
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