FIFA Officials Being Prosecuted on Bribery, Money Laundering, Embezzlement and many more

A FIFA official being held in Switzerland as part of a corruption scandal has been extradited to the United States, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said Thursday.


Earlier this month, U.S. officials requested the extradition of seven high-ranking FIFA officials arrested in Switzerland in May. They are suspected of taking bribes worth over $100 million in connection with soccer tournaments. The official was handed over to American police escorts in Zurich who accompanied him on a July 15 flight to New York. The office did not name the official who was extradited.

A Swiss probe into corruption allegations surrounding the next two World Cups has grown to include 81 acts of suspicious financial activity now under investigation, Andre Marty, a spokesman for the office of the attorney general, told CNN via email in early July.

He confirmed that all reports were in relation to the ongoing investigation into the allocation of the 2018 -- scheduled to be held in Russia -- and 2022 -- in Qatar -- editions of the World Cup, FIFA's flagship tournament. Calls this month by CNN to the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the organizing committee for the 2022 tournament, went unanswered, and at the time of writing the Football Union of Russia had not responded to CNN requests for a statement.

Both Russia and Qatar, however, have publicly denied any wrongdoing with regards to the bidding processes of the two tournaments.