FIFA suspect Burzaco turns himself in to Italian police

Argentine-Italian businessman Alejandro Burzaco (Photo released by Interpol)

MILAN — An Argentine businessman who was indicted by U.S. authorities in connection to the FIFA corruption case turned himself in to Italian police on Tuesday.

Bolzano police official Giuseppe Tricarico told The Associated Press that Alejandro Burzaco turned himself in Tuesday morning. He was with an Italian and Spanish-speaking lawyer.

Tricarico said Burzaco is currently in a jail cell pending a hearing later Tuesday on whether to confirm the arrest, as is procedure in Italy.

Burzaco escaped arrest in the dawn raids on a luxury Swiss hotel on May 27. He was spotted shortly afterward eating breakfast at the hotel.

He was named on Interpol’s most wanted list last Wednesday, along with five other men with ties to FIFA.

Burzaco and Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, also from Argentina, were named in a U.S. indictment saying they bribed soccer officials in exchange for the media and commercial rights to international tournaments.

Burzaco, who is the president of sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias, and the Jinkis’ merged their companies to form part of Datisa, which obtained the exclusive worldwide rights to the 2015, 2019 and 2023 Copa America tournaments as well as the 2016 centenary edition of the South American championship.

The indictment states that Datisa agreed to pay $110 million in bribes to Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin, Nicolas Leoz and several other soccer officials for the rights.

A judge will decide later Tuesday whether Burzaco represents a flight risk or can be given house arrest.

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.