Judge Vacates Conviction of Former Fox Exec in FIFA Bribery Case – Rolling Stone

A federal judge vacated convictions of former Fox executive Hernán López and an Argentinian marketing company in a FIFA bribery case that accused them of bribing soccer officials to secure broadcasting rights for big tournaments, including the World Cup.

U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen granted a motion for the acquittal on Friday night, as The Associated Press reports, citing a May decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case connected to Joseph Percoco, an aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, where the wire fraud conspiracy conviction was reversed after the court found the jury instructions too vague.

“The Supreme Court’s latest wire fraud decisions — especially Percoco — and the absence of precedent applying honest services wire fraud to foreign commercial bribery, requires this court to find that (the statute) does not criminalize the conduct…