May 10 – The last of the football officials still held in Zurich after the May 2015 raids by Swiss police and US Department of Justice officials, has finally had his extradition to the US finalised.
Nicaraguan Julio Rocha (pictured) will be sent to the US in the next couple of days where he will appear in a Brooklyn court to be charged.
Rocha had agreed to be extradited to his home country but the Swiss ruled he should be sent to the US. His appeal against that ruling was overruled.
Rocha, the former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation and a FIFA development officer, is accused of demanding and taking bribes of $150,000 for the sale of marketing rights to World Cup qualifying games when he was president of his national federation.
The six others arrested last May in Zurich and two others arrested in December have all been extradited to the United States or their home countries. Most are now on bail awaiting trial. More than 42 football and football marketing executives have been arrested in a corruption investigation that has identified more than $250 million of corrupt payments.
Of the Zurich arrests, Rocha had held out the longest but Switzerland’s Federal Tribunal confirmed the legality of his transfer to US jurisdiction. “Complaints raised against the judgment (of the lower court) are unfounded,” said a statement from Switzerland’s highest court.
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