José Hawilla

José Hawilla (born 11 July 1943) is a Brazilian businessman, the owner and founder of Traffic Group, a multinational sports marketing conglomerate. Hawilla was born in São José do Rio Preto, in the state of São Paulo, and began his career as a sports journalist. In 1980, Hawilla founded the Traffic Group, Brazil’s largest sports marketing company. Hawilla pleaded guilty on 12 December 2014 to "corruption charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering", in connection with what has become the 2015 FIFA corruption case. Hawilla has agreed to forfeit $151 million, of which $25 million was paid in December 2014.