Overview
- The court’s plenary upheld an October decision to surrender Vitaly Vanshelboim for substantive bribery, honest‑services wire fraud and money‑laundering charges, while denying three conspiracy counts for lack of an equivalent offense in Spanish law.
- U.S. authorities allege he took multimillion‑dollar bribes and steered about $60 million in grants and unsecured loans to companies tied to British businessman David Kendrick between 2015 and 2023.
- Judges rejected Vanshelboim’s claims of political persecution and found no evidence of institutional misuse of the U.S. criminal process, also dismissing his bid to avoid extradition on asylum grounds.
- One magistrate, José Ricardo de Prada, issued a dissent urging that any transfer be conditioned on United Nations confirmation of Vanshelboim’s functional immunity or a waiver by the secretary‑general.
- Vanshelboim was arrested in March in Alicante on a U.S. warrant and remains in provisional detention as Spain’s executive branch decides on the final transfer.