Juan Ángel Napout

Juan Ángel Napout Barreto (born 13 May 1958) is a Paraguayan football executive and businessman. He was head of the Paraguayan Football Association from 2007 to 2014. Napout served as President of CONMEBOL from August 2014 until his resignation on 11 December 2015 after his arrest in Zürich, Switzerland in relation to the 2015 FIFA corruption case. In December 2015, he was banned by the FIFA Ethics Committee for 90 days.[1]

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Napout and the second or maternal family name is Barreto.
Juan Ángel Napout Barreto
Juan Napout in 2010
Born (1958-05-13) 13 May 1958
Asunción
NationalityParaguayan
TitlePresident of CONMEBOL
Term2014–2015
PredecessorEugenio Figueredo
SuccessorAlejandro Dominguez

Biography

Napout was born on 13 May 1958 in Asunción, Paraguay.[2] In June 1989, at the age of 32, Napout became the President of the Paraguayan football club Cerro Porteño.[2] From 2007 to 2014, Napout was President of the Paraguayan Football Association.[3]

Napout succeeded Eugenio Figueredo as President of CONMEBOL in August 2014 on an interim basis.[3] On 4 March 2015 he was re-elected for a full term as President of CONMEBOL and was also appointed Vice-President of FIFA.[2][3]

Napout was arrested in Zürich on 3 December 2015 on charges of accepting bribes.[4][5] On 11 December 2015 Napout resigned as President of CONMEBOL and was succeeded in interim capacity by Wilmar Valdez.[6]

After his arrest Napout agreed to extradition and appeared before a federal judge in New York on 15 December 2015 and declared himself not guilty on the five charges brought against him. He was afterwards released on bail.[7] His trial commenced in November 2017.[8] He was accused by U.S. authorities of racketeering conspiracy as well as wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The U.S. assistant attorney stated he requested and accepted bribes.[9] On 22 December 2017 Napout was found guilty on three counts of racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.[10] On 29 August 2018, Napout was sentenced to nine years in prison.[11]

In November 2017, investigations of the Paradise Papers revealed that, in 2010, Napout created a company in the Bahamas the day he started to receive bribes from the Datisa (the consortium handling football broadcasting rights in Paraguay). A proxy bank account based in Switzerland was also set under his wife's name (Ruth Forster) to wire the money from the Bahamas to a European account and reroute it back to Paraguay.[12][13] In 2015, he allegedly received 1 million dollars in bribes on the Copa América 2015 deals.[14]

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References
  1. "Fifa suspends Juan Ángel Napout and Alfredo Hawit for 90 days". The Guardian. 4 December 2015. Archived from the original on 5 December 2015.
  2. "Juan Ángel Napout Barreto". CONMEBOL. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  3. "Napout re-elected as CONMEBOL president". Yahoo News via AFP. 4 March 2015.
  4. "Police swoop on Fifa stronghold Baur au Lac hotel - for the second time this year". The Telegraph. 3 December 2015.
  5. "Napout está acusado de cobrar coimas por u$s7,5 millones". Infobae (in Spanish). 29 May 2015.
  6. "Juan Angel Napout resigns as CONMEBOL president". ESPN. 11 December 2015.
  7. "Escándalo FIFA: Juan Ángel Napout pagó USD 20 millones de fianza y tendrá arresto domiciliario". Infobae (in Spanish). 15 December 2015.
  8. "FIFA bribery trial due to kick off in New York court". Reuters. 6 November 2017.
  9. Rebecca R. Ruiz (13 November 2017). "FIFA Trial Opens With References to Cash Drops and Bag Men". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  10. "2 Top Soccer Officials Found Guilty in FIFA Case". The New York Times. 22 December 2017. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017.
  11. Tom Hays (29 August 2018). "Ex-South American soccer official gets prison sentence".
  12. (in Spanish) Dinero de sobornos, transferidos por esposa de Juan Ángel Napout, Eluniverso, 6 November 2017
  13. (in Spanish) Juan Ángel Napout aparece en 'Paradise Papers' el mismo día que se inicia su juicio por los sobornos del 'FIFA Gate', Notimerica.com, 8 November 2017
  14. (in Spanish) El soborno musical que recibió Juan Ángel Napout, ex presidente de la Conmebol, por parte de la empresa Full Play, Infobae.com, 20 November 2017
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