José Hawilla, a former sports journalist, built Traffic Group over a 30-year period from a small Brazilian company that sold ads for bus stops to a major sports marketing firm and a powerhouse in the soccer business. He acted as a middle-man for the Brazilian Soccer Federation’s sponsorship agreement with Nike in the 1990s and expanded into the negotiation of marketing and television rights to major tournaments for FIFA, soccer’s governing body.
At one point, Hawilla had a major U.S. private equity firm, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, buy a big minority stake in Traffic Group. He opened an office in Miami and helped launch North American Soccer League franchises in Florida and North Carolina. Traffic Group kept a Citi private bank account in New York and a bank account in Miami, which received tens of millions of dollars from a Cayman Islands company that Hawilla controlled.
But Hawilla’s ties to the U.S. made him vulnerable to U.S. law enforcement and on Wednesday federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed his plea agreement to a four-count information charging him with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Hawilla, who is 71, has agreed to forfeit over $151 million, $25 million of which has already been paid. Traffic Sports International and its U.S. arm have also pleaded guilty. Traffic Group’s U.S. president, Aaron Davidson, who is also chairman of the North American Soccer League, has been indicted by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
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