NEW YORK: Fall-out from the FIFAGate scandal has seen a Panama-based fined for bribing Eduardo Li, the former president of the Costa Rica football federation.

Li is awaiting sentence later this year on corruption charges arising out of the investigation undertaken at the behest of the US Justice Department. In April last year he was banned for life from football by the FIFA ethics committee after formally admitting the charges.

Mimo International Exports and Imports Inc, as reported by Reuters, pleaded guilty District Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn and was ordered to pay a $900,000 fine and $500,000 restitution to the federation. The company which has been wound up as part of a plea agreement.

According to a statement Mimo agreed in 2014 to pay $500,000 to Li so he would contract an unnamed US sportswear company to sponsor Costa Rica’s national team.

Mimo was seeking to pull out of a 2012 deal in which it had agreed to manufacture or import kit from the federation’s previous Italian supplied while collecting a multimillion dollar termination fee. The U company agreed to pay that fee.

Prosecutors said Li received more than $300,000 of ‘his’ bribe before he was arrested in May 2015 in Zurich on the eve of the annual congress of world football federation FIFA.

Reuters has started that the sponsorship deal matched the description of one announced in 2015 with Boston-based New Balance. It could not be reached for immediate comment but has always insisted it did not tolerate corrupt activities.

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