José Lázaro Margulies (born 12 August 1939), is a Brazilian businessman who was convicted of organized crime, money laundering and fraud charges relating to the 2015 FIFA corruption case.
José Margulies was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and immigrated to Brazil at a young age, where he worked for more than twenty years managing sales and marketing rights related to sports competitions.
[5][6] In April 2016, a U.S. Federal Court released Margulies's November 2015 testimony in which he pleaded guilty to corruption and agreed with the prosecution about fining and recovering millions of dollars.
[7] José Margulies acknowledged his role as an intermediary in transfers of bribe money to sports executives.
Judge Pamela K. Chen stated that Margulies had committed a serious crime and that this had contributed to questioning the credibility of professional football, but considered it a mitigating circumstance to repent of his deed and to cooperate with the court.