Eladio Rodriguez, former employee of Torneos, stated today that Julio Grondona, the former president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), "always received bribe payments in cash for TV rights of friendly matches of the Argentine national team, for the World Cup Qualifiers, for the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana."
Alejandro Burzaco, former CEO of Torneos, implicated in the FIFA scandal, had already talked about the bribes received by Julio Grondona.
The revelations arose within the framework of a new hearing in the Brooklyn court, where the case called FIFAgate is settled.
Rodriguez, who started working at Torneos in 1993, said that the former CEO of the company, Alejandro Burzaco, who testified in the same trial two weeks ago, had appointed him as the person in charge of arranging all bribe payments to the different football leaders of the continent, as reported by the digital site BuzzFeedNews, from journalist Ken Bensinger, present in the courtroom.
Also read:FIFAgate: offices of Torneos and Competencias are raided for alleged bribes
"Julio Grondona received bribes for friendly matches of the Argentine national team, for the World Cup Qualifiers, for the Copa Libertadores and for the Copa Sudamericana, and some other bribes that I don't specifically remember what they were for," stated Rodriguez.
He also pointed out that Grondona always received the bribes in cash, and that foreign exchange houses with offshore accounts were used for this purpose.
Also read:FIFAgate: a football official revealed the fear caused by Julio Humberto Grondona
"Between 48 to 72 hours after making a transfer, the cash was delivered to Torneos, and then Torneos counted the money. Sometimes, it was delivered to Grondona's apartment. But the most common thing was that Don Julio's (Grondona's) driver would pick it up at our offices," Rodriguez assured.
Furthermore, the witness stated that Grondona received payments totaling 4,575,000 dollars in 2013. This came to light after he displayed the accounting books of the bribes that detailed the modus operandi of the bribes.
An example of a payment to Grondona: "01/21/13 Payment for service station, Papa $626,250:
Ken Bensinger (@kenbensinger)
Another one: "01/21/13 Cash delivery to Papa for Arsenal $100,000"
And another one: "08/05/13 Cash delivery to Papa $300,000"
Rodriguez, who signed a cooperation agreement with the US prosecution in March, specified that the payments to Grondona, Nicolas Leoz, Eugenio Figueredo, Eduardo DeLuca, and Jose Luis Meiszner were made directly by Torneos.
In turn, he detailed that the payments to the so-called 'Group of 6' -- which included former Conmebol president Juan Angel Napout and the presidents of the Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia federations -- were made through accounts of Full Play, managed by Argentine businessmen Hugo and Mariano Jinkis.
Furthermore, he acknowledged that in July 2013, the company he represented paid $3 million to Brazilians Jose Maria Marin and Marco Polo del Nero as bribes for the Copa America.