Venable partner Ed Wilson was interviewed in a July 20, 2016 Inside Counsel article on surrounding extradition in prosecution. The topic gained recent attention following the successful extradition of Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, the former chairman and CEO of KIT digital, from Colombia on charges of market manipulation and accounting fraud.
"The US will seek extradition in financial fraud cases," said Wilson. "If your client is under investigation and the attorney is concerned that he or she may be indicted, contact the prosecutors with the understanding that the client will return to the U.S. before any indictment. In other words, negotiate surrender in advance and have some credibility in the negotiations." He added that an attorney may offer "to surrender the subject's passport pending the end of the investigation."
On the Tuzman case, Wilson said that "once the indictment is issued, the extradition process may be followed regardless of what the defendant requests. [The] point here is that if there is an indictment in the U.S., the country where the fugitive is residing may, as with Tuzman, be bound by the treaty and internal law to follow all the steps of the procedure. It is a long, slow process, even when the defendant wants to be extradited. Tuzman spent months in a Bogota jail known for difficult conditions."