Julio Rocha and Rafael Esquivel

GENEVA: Three soccer officials who pleaded guilty in American courts to accepting bribes were banned for life by the FIFA ethics committee yesterday. They include former FIFA audit committee member Richard Lai of Guam, who testified in federal court. "His guilty plea related, amongst others, to schemes in which he received bribes in exchange for his support in relation to the FIFA presidential elections and to gain control and influence within the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and FIFA," the soccer body said of Lai in a statement.

Two more former soccer federation presidents, Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Julio Rocha of Nicaragua, were also banned for life yesterday. They were arrested in Zurich in May 2015 in early morning raids on luxury hotels and later extradited to the United States. Though the life bans were announced during the trial in Brooklyn of three other FIFA-connected officials from South America, the ethics panel investigations were separate and did not use new evidence being aired daily in court.

FIFA said its ethics judges imposed "appropriate fines in relation to the amounts of the bribes that they have admitted having taken". Esquivel was fined 1 million Swiss francs ($1 million), Lai was fined 870,000 Swiss francs ($870,000), and Rocha was fined 500,000 Swiss francs ($500,000). It is unclear if FIFA can enforce fines on people who have left the sport.

Lai, who is an American citizen, previously agreed to pay "more than $1.1 million in forfeiture and penalties," the US Department of Justice said in April. In court, Lai pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy charges related to taking about $1 million in bribes. Esquivel agreed to forfeit $16 million a year ago when he pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. His offenses were linked to the awarding of contracts for media and marketing rights to South American soccer competitions.

However, Esquivel's name was cited Monday in Brooklyn during testimony in the ongoing trial of former soccer executives from Brazil, Paraguay and Peru, who deny corruption charges. One witness who formerly worked for a marketing agency in Argentina said he kept a ledger of payments to officials. FIFA has repeatedly declined to comment on allegations and evidence detailed in the current federal court case. Rocha was a FIFA staffer working for its development department when he was arrested in 2015. He agreed to forfeit nearly $300,000 after admitting to racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy charges last December. All three banned officials are awaiting sentencing in Brooklyn. - AP