March 8 – One of the remaining ‘Zurich Seven’, former Venezuela federation president Rafael Esquivel, has been extradited from Switzerland to the United States to face bribery charges in football’s ongoing anti-corruption investigation.
The Swiss federal office of justice said two American officials “accompanied him on the flight to New York” on Monday, nine months after he was detained in that infamous first raid on the exclusive Baur au Lac hotel just before May’s FIFA congress.
American prosecutors allege Esquivel, a former CONMEBOL vice-president, took bribes worth millions of dollars to give sports marketing contracts to the Copa America tournaments in 2007, 2015, 2019 and 2023 including one hosted by Venezuela.
His extradition to the US was approved by the Swiss in September but Esquivel, citing health problems, appealed the ruling twice, once to Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in early 2016 and again to the Federal Supreme Court when the first one was rejected.
But late last month, he notified authorities the he had withdrawn his second appeal, reportedly around the time the vote was taking place to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.
Esquivel’s extradition leaves two officials still appealing – ex-FIFA staffer Julio Rocha of Nicaragua and Costas Takkas, one-time attaché to former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, the most high-profile figure on the list of US indictments and currently under house arrest awaiting trial.
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