Brasilia, Brazil--Brazilian businessman Jose Margulies, wanted by the FBI over the FIFA corruption scandal, is in Brazil and preparing his defense to avoid extradition, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Margulies, a broadcasting executive, is of Argentine origin but obtained Brazilian citizenship more than 40 years ago.
He is one of 14 people indicted by the US Justice Department over what it calls a culture of systemic corruption at world football's governing body dating back 20 years and responsible for some $150 million in bribes and kickbacks, including vote-selling in awarding World Cup venues.
Specifically, the Justice Department says Margulies is suspected of having served as an intermediary to facilitate illicit payments between sports marketing executives and FIFA officials.
He is among the last of the 14 indicted people who remain free. Others have been arrested or turned themselves in.
Margulies is seeking protection under a Brazilian law that bars the government from extraditing naturalized Brazilians unless it is for crimes alleged to have been committed before they obtained Brazilian nationality.
That motion filed by the law firm Almeida Advogados to the Brazilian Supreme Court was rejected, however.
That's because Brazil has yet to receive an extradition request from the Americans, Judge Gilmar Mendes wrote in the court's decision.
Margulies spends most of his time outside Brazil.
Tatiana Criscuolo Vianna, a lawyer working on Margulies's case, also said no extradition request or arrest warrant has arrived from the United States, even though Margulies's name and picture feature on the FBI's website.
"Margulies is in Sao Paulo. He is calm and he is waiting. There is nothing else he can do," the attorney said.
She said he was on vacation outside the country when he found out through the news media that he was a wanted man.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter resigned amid the fallout from the stunning scandal.
AFP
