• The 80th Ordinary Congress of CONMEBOL received a detailed report from the Confederation’s legal representative, Claudio Lovera, regarding the ongoing case against Banco Atlas for alleged money laundering.
• Banco Atlas entered into multimillion-dollar trust agreements with Nicolás Leoz despite an international arrest warrant for extradition already having been issued against the official by the U.S. Department of Justice. Currently, a ruling from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Paraguay is awaited in order to move forward with criminal prosecution regarding these events.
• CONMEBOL is the only football confederation in the world to have conducted a forensic audit and is also the organization that has recovered the most money from corruption schemes: approximately USD 130 million.
• Summarizing the tone of the interventions from the presidents of the member associations, Pablo Milad, President of the Chilean Association, highlighted CONMEBOL’s transparency and commitment to South American football in the aftermath of FIFAgate.
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The 80th Ordinary Congress of CONMEBOL received and analyzed the detailed report from the Confederation’s legal representative, Claudio Lovera, concerning the judicial case opened against Banco Atlas for alleged money laundering.
The highest authority of CONMEBOL firmly reaffirmed its decision to continue efforts to recover the funds stolen from South American football through corruption, as well as to seek the criminal prosecution of those responsible.
Lovera explained that, through a forensic audit, information was collected on financial and administrative management practices between 2000 and 2015. At least four patterns of conduct suspected of causing financial harm to the institution were identified. One such practice was the direct transfer of nearly USD 28 million from CONMEBOL accounts to personal accounts of Nicolás Leoz at Banco do Brasil.
In June 2017, a criminal complaint was filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Paraguay based on the information available at that time.
In 2020, CONMEBOL’s Legal Department obtained new information—unavailable at the time of the forensic audit—regarding significant deposits made by Nicolás Leoz at Banco Atlas in 2013, the year he resigned from his positions at CONMEBOL and FIFA. Despite the magnitude of these operations, the Bank failed to apply the due diligence measures mandated by anti-money laundering regulations.
In 2016, when an international arrest warrant for extradition had already been issued against Leoz by the United States for money laundering and other crimes, Banco Atlas agreed to establish multimillion-dollar trusts with the former football executive. Once again, the Bank acted in disregard of the due diligence procedures required under applicable law.
In this context, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Paraguay concluded that the complaint had sufficient merit to open a criminal investigation, which included the search of Banco Atlas’ headquarters following its refusal to cooperate.
Lovera concluded his presentation by stating that CONMEBOL is currently awaiting a decision from the Public Prosecutor’s Office to advance criminal proceedings related to these events.
The Congress members positively valued the actions undertaken by CONMEBOL in favor of transparency following the events of FIFAgate. In this regard, Pablo Milad, President of the Chilean Association, captured the spirit of the Congress by stating, “We must validate and appreciate what has been done from the time of FIFAgate to today at CONMEBOL. It has been a transparent, communicative, and economically very effective evolution for everyone. And that is something that must be valued and recognized.”
