Hugo and Mariano Jinkis paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to football executives. They've now admitted it in a US federal court, striking a deferred prosecution agreement that sees them walk away from fraud charges in exchange for a $50 million forfeiture and a full confession.
The father-and-son co-owners of Argentine sports marketing firm Full Play were swept up in the 2015 FIFA corruption probe — the sprawling US-led investigation that sent shockwaves through football's governing body and triggered raids on FIFA officials in Zurich. What followed was years of arrests, trials, convictions, and deals. Thursday's admission is the latest entry in that long, ugly ledger.
What they actually did
The scheme, as outlined in the court filing, was straightforward in its corruption: bribe football executives across FIFA, CONCACAF, and CONMEBOL in return for preferential treatment when bidding for media and marketing rights. The tournaments in question weren't minor competitions. World Cup qualifiers. The Copa America. The commercial jewels of South American football.
Full Play used those rights to generate serious revenue. The bribes were the cost of doing business. For years, it worked.
Under the deferred prosecution agreement, the US will drop the fraud charges if the Jinkises comply with the terms — the $50 million forfeiture chief among them. No prison time currently on the table. Whether that feels proportionate to the scale of what they admitted is a question the court filing doesn't answer.
The longer shadow
The 2015 FIFA scandal didn't just expose a few bad actors — it revealed how deeply commercial corruption had embedded itself into the sport's administrative structure. Nearly a decade later, cases are still closing. The Jinkises' admission is a reminder that the fallout hasn't fully settled.
For anyone with money on tournaments whose broadcast rights passed through these hands, the integrity questions were never just theoretical. They were baked into the infrastructure of the game itself.
The $50 million forfeiture is agreed. The charges are dropped. The bribes, by their own admission, were paid.
