# Is the USA going too far with prosecuting foreign crimes?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-usa-going-too-far-with-prosecuting-foreign-crimes/721612
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 4, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-usa-going-too-far-with-prosecuting-foreign-crimes/721612 "2015-06-04T05:50:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-usa-going-too-far-with-prosecuting-foreign-crimes/721612/1 "2015-06-04T05:50:02Z")
The recent FIFA scandal has brought this issue to public attention, but I recall a local murder/kidnapping case from years past that I remembered:
> **[T&T woman jailed for 20 years in US on kidnapping - Stabroek News](https://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/12/21/news/regional/tt-woman-jailed-for-20-years-in-us-on-kidnapping/)**
>
> (Trinidad Express) A UNITED STATES judge has sentenced Trinidadian Doreen Alexander-Durity, the former wife of naturalised US citizen Balram “Balo”
Short version is that a dual US citizen was kidnapped and murdered outside the US by several non- US nationals, and they were subsequently extradited and tried and imprisoned in the US for the crimes. The victim was not targeted because of his nationality, one of those tried was an ex-wife.
Do you think the US could be opening a can of worms with cases like this? Right now the US is powerful enough with enough diplomatic clout and government funding and has the legislative frame work to prosecute foreign crimes domestically, and most other countries don’t. But this could obviously change in the future, especially as other countries start emulating the needed legislation.
You could imagine a future point where a US citizen is accused of a crime that happens to involve a dual Chinese citizen, and they are cleared or charges are not brought due to insufficient evidence. But then an extradition request comes in from the Chinese government. I just wonder how defendants must feel being brought to a foreign country and tried there for a crime that occurred in their native country.
I didn’t put this in great debates because I was just curious how everyone feels about and wanted a looser conversation.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2015, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-usa-going-too-far-with-prosecuting-foreign-crimes/721612/2 "2015-06-04T06:02:15Z")
Except the argument in the US FIFA prosecutions is that these aren’t foreign crimes: they involve meetings and exchanges of money which occurred on US soil or through US banks, particularly in relation to a soccer cup to be played in the US: the Gold Cup.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-usa-going-too-far-with-prosecuting-foreign-crimes/721612/3 "2015-06-04T06:26:01Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Except the argument in the US FIFA prosecutions is that these aren’t foreign crimes: they involve meetings and exchanges of money which occurred on US soil or through US banks, particularly in relation to a soccer cup to be played in the US: the Gold Cup.
Yes I am aware of that, I only mentioned the FIFA case as a jumping off point because it has received massive media attention internationally and has people talking about the issue. I also mentioned a case where the only connection to the USA is that the victim was a US citizen.
Another side of the issue is that because of how the world financial system is set up it is nearly impossible to avoid contact with a US company in financial crimes. Recall how Russians were basically cut off from the credit card networks due to sanctions.
I have seen arguments that it is impossible for online crimes to not come under US jurisdiction no matter where the perp or victim are because so much traffic moves through US routers and ISPs. You can send an email to someone in Ghana from France and good odds are the packets will transverse the USA for instance.