Miami: A US federal judge has overturned two convictions in the FIFA corruption case, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling. Hernan Lopez, a former executive with 21st Century Fox, and Argentine sports marketing firm Full Play had been found guilty in March of paying bribes and kickbacks to South American football officials in schemes related to television and marketing rights.

The case was part of a larger probe initiated by the US Justice Department in 2015, which exposed corruption within FIFA and continental confederations for South and North America. Several arrests, trials, charges, convictions, and guilty pleas followed.

Lopez and Full Play had been convicted of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in March, with Lopez facing a potential 40-year prison sentence and substantial fines. However, US District Judge Pamela Chen, in a ruling issued on Friday, cited a Supreme Court decision in May that overturned a wire fraud conviction and concluded that the wire fraud convictions in this case could not stand.

Judge Chen ruled, "The Supreme Court's latest wire fraud decisions... requires this court to find that [the statute] does not criminalize the conduct alleged in this case, and that therefore the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain defendants' convictions under that statute." She added that the convictions for money laundering, predicated on the wire fraud convictions, also could not be sustained.

The kickback scheme primarily benefited influential figures in South American football, including former CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz, former Argentine football executive Julio Grondona, and former Brazilian football chief Ricardo Teixeira.