Off the wire
Kenya launches new policy on environment, sanitation  • Israeli hawkish lawmaker accepts offer to serve as Netanyahu's defense minister: source  • British gov't, junior doctors reach agreement to solve contract dispute  • China earmarks funds to help reduce overcapacity  • Confucius Institute marks two-year operations in Ghana  • 3rd LD Writethru: 6 people injured in strong earthquake in Ecuador  • 1st LD: 6.8-magnitude aftershock strikes Ecuador  • Conditions for medium-high growth still exist: official  • South Africa stocks close higher on 3rd consecutive day  • Climate innovation center launched in Ghana  
You are here:   Home

Last official involved in FIFA scandal extradited to U.S.: Swiss official

Xinhua, May 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) reported Wednesday that former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation Julio Rocha was extradited to New York Wednesday under escort of two U.S. law enforcement officers who took charge of him at Zurich airport.

Rocha is the last of nine FIFA officials to be extradited after arrests were carried out in May and December last year in Switzerland following a crisis which shook the world football's governing body amid allegations of fraud, bribery and money laundering.

While the extraditions proceedings have now been concluded, FOJ indicated that legal assistance proceedings between Swiss and U.S. authorities are still ongoing.

"Further to a U.S. request for legal assistance of March 6, 2015, as well as four supplementary requests, the FOJ has had an extensive body of banking records obtained for the U.S. authorities," the office said in a statement.

"Based on eight partial final rulings, which were not challenged, the FOJ has been able to hand banking records over to the U.S. authorities on a continuous basis since the end of December 2015," it added.

Pending appeals against an additional 18 partial final rulings, a further extensive collection of banking records should be made available to U.S. authorities in June.

FOJ indicated that conforming to U.S. requests for legal assistance, the FOJ has frozen approximately 80 million U.S. dollars in 13 bank accounts. Enditem