Damiani resigns from FIFA ethics committee in Panama Papers fallout - FIFA

Yahoo – AFP, April 6, 2016

Juan Pedro Damiani resigned from the FIFA ethics committee in the Panama Papers
fallout, FIFA announced on April 6, 2016 (AFP Photo/Pablo Bielli)

Geneva (AFP) - Uruguay's Juan Pedro Damiani has resigned from FIFA's ethics committee after the Panama Papers showed his law firm acted as an intermediary for a disgraced FIFA official.

"We can confirm that Mr. Damiani resigned from his position as member of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee of FIFA," panel spokesman Marc Tenbuecken told AFP in an email.

Juan Pedro Damiani is under investigation

 by the FIFA watchdog after he was named

 in the Panama Papers (AFP Photo/Michael

Buholzer)

The Panama Papers indicate that Damiani's firm helped Eugenio Figueredo -- the former head of the South American football confederation who is now facing corruption charges in the United States -- set up a shell company.

The leaked documents also show that Damiani's firm acted as a go-between for a Nevada-based company linked to two other people charged with corruption by the US: businessmen Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano of Argentina.

Damiani, who heads the prestigious Uruguayan club Penarol, has won praise for publicly crusading against corruption in scandal-tained South American football.

He has denied wrongdoing in the Panama Papers case, while FIFA's ethics watchdog has opened a probe into the matter.