Miami, Oct 7 (EFE).- U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday charged Honduran sports mogul and former Cabinet minister Yankel Rosenthal with laundering money obtained from drug trafficking.
Rosenthal, the owner of first division soccer club Marathon, was arraigned in Miami before U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley.
The soccer club president appeared shackled in court in a prison jumpsuit a day after he was arrested upon arriving at Miami International Airport.
Federal prosecutors charged Rosenthal with laundering illicit drug profits and "other illegal activities."
The money had been sent from a New York bank account to an account in Honduras between 2004 and 2015.
Also charged in the case are Yankel's uncle, Jaime Rolando Rosenthal Oliva; Jaime's son, Yani Benjamin Rosenthal Hidalgo, and lawyer Andres Acosta Garcia.
Each defendant was charged with one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum 20-year U.S. prison term.
Yankel Rosenthal's attorney, Norman Moscowitz, asked the judge for a postponement of the hearing to "have time" to study the case and prepare his defense of the former Honduran minister, who will appear in court once again on Friday.
Rosenthal was investment minister during the administration of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, but he resigned in June for personal reasons.
The Honduran government was informed of Rosenthal's arrest on Tuesday evening in an official communique issued by the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
Marathon is based in the northern city San Pedro Sula, and plays in a stadium commissioned by and named for Yankel Rosenthal.
