“According to the Swiss legislation on mutual assistance in criminal matters, the person concerned must be collected by a United States police escort and taken to the U.S. within ten days”, it explained. Napout was arrested on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, in a pre-dawn raid at a luxury hotel in Switzerland as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s widening bribery case that has shaken world soccer’s scandal-hit governing body, FIFA.
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“In light of current events, it is critical that the confederation’s next president be determined by a public election and the scrutiny that comes with it”, CONCACAF said in a statement. Federation Internationale de Football Association on Friday suspended both officials for 90 days.
Of the nine football officials arrested by Swiss authorities since May at the US Department of Justice’s request, Napout is the quickest to accept extradition. He faces a range of charges relating to racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering, and faces a 20-year sentence if convicted. He agreed to forfeit US$6.7 million in bribes.
Hawit replaced Cayman’s Jeffrey Webb (51) earlier this year as president of CONCACAF after the Cayman football boss was arrested in Zürich.
Hawit agreed to steer CONCACAF commercial rights toward Hugo Jinkis and son, Mariano, from Argentina, who ran the Full Play agency and were indicted in May.
He also was implicated in a separate bribery conspiracy with Miami-based agency Media World over broadcast rights for World Cup qualifying matches of the Honduras national team.
Webb agreed to his extradition in July and has since been allowed to live at his Loganville, Georgia, home.
“Taken together, the defendants charged in the superceding indictment, along with those who have already pleaded guilty, represent nearly every country in Central and South America and occupy leadership roles in Concacaf and Conmebol extending back over two decades”.
Webb’s predecessor as CONCACAF chief Jack Warner is also named in the United States corruption investigation, meaning that the three most recent presidents of the body had all been embroiled in corruption allegations.
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In a letter to U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie, lawyer Charles A. Stillman said Marin hopes to obtain a $2 million surety bond, the final item of collateral, in the next week.
