Birmingham, Al (WIAT) Has Joran van der Sloot finally told one story too many? Will his comments to Dutch crime reporter John van den Heuvel help federal authorities here in Birmingham bring him to the U.S. to face wire fraud and extortion charges?
In a prison cell interview to be aired tonight on Dutch TV, van der Sloot admits he took money from Natalee Holloway's family after promising information about the Mountain Brook teenagers disappearance on a graduation trip to Aruba.
"I wanted to get back at Natalee's family - her parents have been making my life tough for five years," the paper De Telegraaf quoted him as saying from prison in Peru. "When they offered to pay for the girl's location, I thought: 'Why not'?"
U.S. prosecutors say that in the sting earlier this year, Natalee's mother sent $10,000 in cash to Van der Sloot through an FBI witness, and a wire transfer of $15,000 to Van der Sloot's bank account in the Netherlands. He took the money and flew to Latin America. He met Peruvian student Stephany Flores in a Lima, Peru casino. Her corpse was later found in his hotel room.
Van der Sloot stated that he and his father buried Natalee’s body underneath the foundations of a house in Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. However, the body was never found. An FBI investigation showed construction of the house in question had not even started yet in 2005 when Natalee disappeared.
He's facing murder charges in Stephany Flores death and Peruvian police have a confession. Van der Sloot claims that confession was coerced and is trying to get it thrown out. That's where the "confession" to extortion comes into play. If, and it's considered a long shot, a three judge Peruvian panel throws out his confession, willl the U.S. extradition request get more consideration from Peruvian officials?
