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| Julio Rocha |
Julio Rocha had agreed in August to be extradited to Nicaragua, but he remained in Switzerland while the authorities weighed the U.S.’s competing extradition request, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice said. The former top Nicaraguan soccer official, who has also served as a FIFA development officer, is accused of taking bribes to rig the sale of marketing rights for World Cup qualifying games.
The FOJ said that it is approving Rocha’s extradition to both the U.S. and Nicaragua, but Rocha will have to go to the U.S. first.
“The key point in this decision is the fact that the U.S. authorities have been conducting wide-ranging criminal proceedings against a number of individuals for some time now,” the FOJ said. “These individuals are already in the USA., or are to be extradited to the USA. Most of the evidence and witnesses are also located in the USA.”
Rocha and six other FIFA officials were arrested in Switzerland on May 27 as U.S. prosecutors unveiled a wide-ranging indictment over alleged corruption at the highest levels of international soccer. Nicaragua did not start criminal proceedings against Rocha until June 10, the FOJ said.
Rocha is the latest of several defendants to have his extradition approved by the FOJ in response to a request from the U.S. The FOJ said that Rocha, like other defendants in the FIFA case in New York federal court, is accused of actions that would violate Switzerland’s Federal Act on Unfair Competition if proven true.
“According to the request, by accepting bribes for the award of sports marketing contracts, Rocha massively influenced the competitive situation and distorted the market for media rights in connection with the World Cup qualifying matches,” the FOJ said. “Other sports marketing companies were placed at a disadvantage, and the football federation concerned was prevented from negotiating more favorable marketing agreements.”
A representative of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where the FIFA case is pending, told Law360 on Thursday that the office is not commenting on the extradition process.
Rocha, a Nicaraguan citizen, has 30 days to appeal the extradition ruling to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, the FOJ said. If he loses there, he can take the matter to the Federal Supreme Court “only under certain circumstances — specifically if there are indications of severe deficiencies in the foreign criminal proceedings,” the office added.
Including Rocha, six of the seven FIFA officials arrested in Switzerland have either been approved for extradition by the FOJ or agreed to be extradited.
Jeffrey Webb, the former president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, agreed to be extradited in July, later pleading not guilty in U.S. federal court.
The FOJ has granted extradition requests for Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel, Eduardo Li and Costas Takkas. It has not announced an extradition decision for FIFA Olympic tournament organizer Jose Maria Marin.
The international soccer scandal broadened in late September when Swiss authorities said they were kicking off a criminal proceeding against FIFA President Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, who was not charged in the U.S. Blatter is accused of entering into a contract with the Caribbean Football Union against FIFA’s interests and making “a disloyal payment” of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.1 million) at FIFA’s expense to Michel Platini, the president of the Union of European Football Associations.
The independent FIFA Ethics Committee later handed provisional suspensions to Blatter, Platini and Secretary-General Jerome Valcke. The suspended officials have denied any wrongdoing.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP is representing FIFA’s interests in the dual investigations by U.S. and Swiss authorities. The firm is also helping FIFA conduct an internal probe into allegations of widespread corruption.
Counsel information for Rocha was not immediately available.
--Additional reporting by Zachary Zagger. Editing by Rebecca Flanagan.
