Extradition from Switzerland—Oil-for-Food Scandal

Along with indicting Oscar Wyatt Jr. for his alleged role in an Oil-for-Food scandal, which we have discussed here, a federal grand jury out of the Southern District of New York indicted two of Mr. Wyatt’s business associates, Catalina del Socorro Miguel Fuentes (aka Cathy Miguel) and Mohammed Saidji.^[1] Ms. Miguel and Mr. Saidji are thought to be located in Geneva, Switzerland, which will necessitate their extradition from that country.^[2] Federal prosecutors have already signaled their intention to have the two individuals extradited from Switzerland.

Under the terms of the extradition treaty between the US and Switzerland, there is a dual-criminality requirement for extradition.^[3] In other words, “[a]n offense shall be an extraditable offense only if it is punishable under the laws of both Contracting Parties by deprivation of liberty for a period exceeding one year.”^[4]

The two individuals are charged with committing the same crimes as Mr. Wyatt:
wire fraud, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, acts of terrorism (prohibited financial transactions), and violating export controls under the International Economic Powers Act. It will be interesting to see if Switzerland agrees to extradite Ms. Miguel or Mr. Saidji for the prohibited financial transactions charge or the export controls charge, because it is not clear whether Switzerland has similar crimes for those activities. The conspiracy and wire fraud charges are certainly crimes in Switzerland.

We have previously discussed extradition from Switzerland here.

---

[1] David Ivanovich, Texas Oil Mogul Indicted in Scam, Houston Chronicle, Oct. 21, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Extradition Treaty, Nov. 14, 1990, U.S.-Switz., art. 2, para. 1, S. Treaty Doc. No. 104-9 (1997).
[4] Id.