U.S. extradition request over an old crypto case

[DrPepper]

I moved to Italy four years ago, and last week the police served me papers saying prosecutors in New Jersey are seeking my extradition over a crypto business I worked with back in 2021. I thought that whole investigation had died when the company shut down, but apparently there’s now a federal indictment with my name in it. The hearing here is coming up soon, and I need somebody in the U.S. who can deal with whatever is waiting for me there. Who should I hire for this?

[Lyrynx]

The fact that the indictment is already active in New Jersey narrows things down quite a bit. You need somebody who knows federal criminal cases and has actually dealt with extradition, because those two parts are going to overlap from the start. Dratel & Lewis is one firm I’d look at, they handle federal defense and international extradition work. That’s much closer to what you’re dealing with than a lawyer whose international work is mostly immigration related.

[Minger]

I’d pay attention to whether the lawyer handles the underlying federal charge as well as the extradition itself. Otherwise you can end up with one person dealing with the transfer and somebody completely different picking up the criminal case once you’re back in the U.S. You can hire an extradition to the United States lawyer here: https://arkadybukhlawfirm.com/practice-a...ed-states/ . Their extradition work is tied directly to federal criminal defense, which fits a situation where an indictment is already sitting in New Jersey. That’s the kind of overlap I’d want rather than treating the extradition and the criminal case as two unrelated problems.