Corruption

Two National Police officers who are suspected of robbing foreigners in Jacó remain under investigation by Costa Rica’s Public Security Ministry (MSP) and Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).

Prosecutors say those arrested are part of a criminal network that manipulated board member elections in favor of people who facilitated loans to certain cooperatives.

FIFA opened up a case against former Costa Rican football head Eduardo Li Wednesday that could result in his lifetime ban from the sport.

Costa Rica’s General Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría Guzmán said shoddy work on the failed project caused economic losses for the country of some ₡1.2 billion ($2 million).

Judges also found the party liable in the fraud charges and ordered that it pay almost ₡600 million ($1 million) to the Supreme Elections Tribunal for the damage caused.

A judge ruled that insurer Lloyd's of London must pay for Li's legal defense in the FIFA corruption case. But there's one catch.

A U.S. judge released Monday transcripts of guilty pleas from three prominent defendants in the sweeping FIFA corruption investigation who confessed to crimes and agreed to pay $37.5 million in compensation.

Honduran daily El Heraldo revealed that senior police officers ordered the assassination of Honduras' top anti-drug official, Arístides González, in December 2009.

Alfredo Hawit, who is from Honduras and also served as CONCACAF president, appeared Monday at a hearing in a Brooklyn court where he agreed in addition to his guilty pleas to forfeit nearly $1 million.

Bribe money from a giant corruption scheme at Brazilian state oil company Petrobras went into President Dilma Rousseff' reelection campaign coffers, a former CEO has told prosecutors, according to a report released Thursday.

Most of the dozens of Costa Rican individuals and firms mentioned in the Panama Papers have not been directly accused of criminal activity, but media outlets and the Solís administration have been quick to suggest that some of their activities point toward attempts to avoid paying taxes in Costa Rica.

Former judge Rosa Elena Gamboa was arrested two years ago on suspicion that she influenced at least two cases involving alleged drug traffickers in 2011 and 2012.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff got as far as giving her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a hug after swearing him in as her new cabinet chief before a federal judge suspended the nomination.

In a recorded call released Wednesday, Rousseff told Lula that she was sending the papers confirming his ministerial role “in case of need.”