Argentine businessmen Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, who are wanted by US prosecutors as part of the FIFA bribery investigation, turned themselves in to authorities in Buenos Aires on Thursday, a lawyer for one of the men said. Hugo Jinkis, 70, and his son, 40, were among 14 current and former FIFA officials and corporate executives indicted in the United States last month on charges of racketeering and corruption that rocked the soccer world.
US prosecutors say the two men, together with Argentine Alejandro Burzaco, conspired to win and keep lucrative media rights contracts from regional soccer by paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes. Burzaco surrendered to police in northern Italy last week. "They have presented themselves to the authorities, in line with the law," Hugo Jinkis' lawyer Jorge Anzorreguy told reporters.
It was not immediately clear whether Jinkis and his son would face immediate demands for their extradition to the United States. "We will wait to see what the judge decides," Anzorreguy said, speaking outside a Buenos Aires court. The Argentine tax authority has denounced all three Argentine suspects for "tax evasion, illicit fiscal association and money laundering". Burzaco was president of Argentine sports marketing firm Torneos y Competencias (Torneos), when he was charged. Hugo and Mariano Jinkis are controlling principals of Full Play, another sports media and marketing business headquartered in Argentina.