A former sports marketing exec who was arrested last year in a U.S. corruption probe involving FIFA "is scheduled to plead guilty on Thursday," a court filing said, according to Nate Raymond of REUTERS. The plea by Aaron Davidson, who headed the Miami-based unit of Brazilian sports marketing firm Traffic Group, "was disclosed in a scheduling order filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday." A lawyer for Davidson "did not immediately respond to a request for comment." Davidson was first charged in May '15. He is one of 42 individuals and entities charged as part of a U.S. investigation that "upended Zurich-based FIFA" and the football world. Prosecutors accused Davidson of participating in schemes to bribe football officials to "secure millions of dollars in sports marketing contracts for Traffic" (REUTERS, 10/19).
EXTRADITION REJECTED: REUTERS' Hugh Bronstein reported an Argentine judge on Tuesday denied a U.S. extradition request for three former football figures "charged as part of the probe into the sport's world-wide governing body, citing the fact that they were already being tried in Argentina." Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio rejected the extradition request from a N.Y. court for the father-and-son sports marketing team Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, along with former regional football exec Eduardo Deluca, "saying the trio should not be tried for the same crimes in two different countries." The court said, "For the Jinkis (pair) and Deluca to face the same charges in two ongoing investigations in the jurisdictions of New York and Buenos Aires would put their constitutional rights at risk" (REUTERS, 10/18).
