Mimo International Exports and Imports Inc. a Panama based company pleaded guilty to bribing Costa Rican soccer official Eduardo Li.

According to the statement read in a Brooklyn court by attorney Barry Kingham, back in 2014 Mimo paid Eduardo Li, who was then the head of the Costa Rican Soccer Federation, the sum of U.S. $500,000.00 so that he would agree to sign a deal for a U.S. apparel company (the name of which was not mentioned) to sponsor Costa Rica’s National Team.

Shareholder Moises Zebede who also appeared in court didn’t tell the U.S. company about the bribe; the Costa Rican Soccer Federation claims that they were never aware of Li’s negotiation or the change of sponsorship until Li informed them that U.S. company New Balance was interested in sponsoring the National Team.

Li apparently had received more than $300,000.00 of the amount before he was arrested in May 27 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. Since then, Li pleaded guilty in 2016 and was banned from soccer for life by FIFA in April 2017.

“14. Li on behalf of FEDEFUT, and Partner A, on behalf of Sponsorship Company and the defendant MIMO, then negotiated the specific terms of FEDEFUT’s terminating the 2012 Agreement between FEDEFUT and Sponsorship Company. During those negotiations, Li and Partner A agreed that Li would receive a $500,000.00 bribe in order to induce Li to sign a new sponsorship agreement with Apparel Company #2 and trigger the payment of multimillion dollar rescission fee to Sponsorship Company. Partner C was aware that Partner A and Li had agreed on this bribe. Partner A did not discuss this bribe agreement with anyone at Apparel Company #2, and he told Li not to discuss this bribe agreement with anyone at Apparel Company #2”, reads the statement.

The company will pay $1.4 million restitution and fines and dissolve under the terms of its wire fraud conspiracy plea deal.