BOGOTA, Oct 2 (Xinhua) Former Colombian football official Enrique Sanz has received a life ban for his role in a sprawling bribery scheme, FIFA said on Tuesday.
According to US prosecutors, Sanz accepted kickbacks in exchange for awarding lucrative commercial deals as the head of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Football Confederation (CONCACAF).
In a statement, FIFA said its ethics committee found Sanz guilty of taking bribes from 2012 to 2015.
In addition to a life-long ban from all football-related activities, he was fined 100,000 Swiss francs (100,000 US dollars).
"The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Mr Enrique Sanz guilty of bribery in violation of the Fifa code of ethics," read a FIFA statement.
Though Sanz has not been publicly charged or sentenced, he was named in multiple indictments as an unnamed co-conspirator by the US Department of Justice in 2015.
In 2014, Colombia-born Sanz was granted leave of absence from CONCACAF to receive treatment for leukemia.
He was suspended by FIFA's ethics committee when US authorities launched the corruption probe in May 2015 and was dismissed by CONCACAF the same year.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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