http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/sports/soccer/eduardo-li-fifa-corruption-case-costa-rica.html 2016-10-08 03:51:29 Costa Rican Soccer Official Pleads Guilty in FIFA Corruption Case United States prosecutors announced the conviction of the 18th defendant, Eduardo Li, in the world-soccer corruption case. He faces up to 60 years in prison. === Eduardo Li, the former president of Costa Rica’s soccer association, pleaded guilty to racketeering and corruption charges on Friday, becoming the 18th defendant to be publicly convicted as part of the United States’ criminal prosecutions involving FIFA, the international governing body of soccer. Appearing in federal court in Brooklyn, Mr. Li admitted to having accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes that traveled through American bank accounts. He negotiated those bribes in connection with awarding media and marketing contracts for soccer matches, including World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies played by the Costa Rican national team. Mr. Li, 57, faces up to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. He will be sentenced at a later date. Mr. Li agreed to forfeit $668,000 to the government, and more than $200 million is now promised to the United States in the case. FIFA, seeking to project reform as government investigations continue, has When the United States first announced its case in May 2015, Mr. Li was among seven soccer officials arrested in a At the time, he was a member-elect of the organization’s executive committee as well as a top official for Concacaf, a regional governing body encompassing North and Central America and the Caribbean. After seven months in jail in Switzerland, Mr. Li was extradited to the United States at the end of 2015, not long after a Mr. Li had been scheduled to face trial in November 2017, along with seven defendants who have contested the charges against them. In federal court last month, Evan Norris, an assistant United States attorney, indicated that the government was discussing pleas with several of those individuals. More than a dozen defendants in the case remain abroad and have not answered to the charges against them. Switzerland, too, is conducting a criminal inquiry focused on FIFA. Among the people under investigation are Sepp Blatter, the former longtime president of the organization, and his top deputy, Jérôme Valcke. Earlier this year, FIFA elected Mr. Blatter’s FIFA’s global executives are due to gather in Zurich next week for meetings. Breaking with tradition, the visiting officials will not stay at the hotel where Mr. Li and others were arrested last year but at a different five-star property a few blocks away.