Fergie Chambers facing US extradition from Spain. Fergie Chambers, detenido en Ibiza para extraditarlo a Estados Unidos. ENG ESP

Photo American political activist Fergie Chambers, pictured in Tunisia in February 2024 (Nur Photo/Reuters)

ENGLISH

Fergie Chambers facing US extradition over dubious ‘terrorism financing’ charges
Kit Klarenberg·July 12, 2026

Over the past decade, Chambers has emerged as one of the most prominent private financiers of pro-Palestinian direct action in the US and the UK, using part of his inherited fortune to support humanitarian initiatives in Gaza and legal defence funds for left-wing activists.

The Grayzone has reviewed a sealed indictment for pro-Palestine donor Fergie Chambers, who was arrested in Spain on dubious money laundering charges concocted by the Trump DOJ. His partner accuses the US government of “political persecution.”

Fergie Chambers, a communist philanthropist and heir to the Cox family fortune, has been jailed in Ibiza, Spain, on the orders of the US Department of Justice. According to a sealed indictment seen by The Grayzone, Chambers now awaits extradition to Washington on dubious federal charges of “international money laundering… with the intent to provide material support to and resources to foreign terrorist organizations.” If deported to the US, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

"This extradition is part of a much broader campaign to suppress global movements for emancipation and liberation, particularly those expressing solidarity with people in the formerly colonised world," they said. 

 'He's in jail. It's very hot. There's no fan, no books and he has no spare clothes' 
"Fergie has dedicated significant resources to humanitarian causes, human rights, justice and dignity, and this prosecution is another manifestation of that wider effort to intimidate and silence political activism."

Speaking to the French newspaper Le Monde last year, Chambers said he had "always been drawn to the cause of the oppressed".

Chambers' arrest came on the same day the Washington Post reported that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had invited senior ministers from more than 60 countries to a meeting on what the administration described as the growing threat of "transnational far-left terrorism".
Critics - including some current and former US officials - have argued that the Trump administration is attempting to expand the use of counterterrorism powers to target left-wing activists and political movements.

Chambers' arrest also comes against the backdrop of increasingly strained relations between Washington and Madrid.
The Spanish government has repeatedly condemned Israel's military campaigns in Gaza and Iran and has refused to permit the United States to use Spanish airspace in support of military strikes on the latter.

Among Chambers' more recent humanitarian initiatives was a $250,000 donation to the Sameer Project.
The organisation said the contribution was "critical to our work" and "a lifeline to a population suffering during displacement, a famine, a man-made water crisis, and the systematic destruction of the medical system".
The funding helped establish a bakery producing 3,600 free loaves of bread a day in northern Gaza, complete a desalination plant supplying 150,000 litres of clean water daily, and operate a free medical clinic in Jabalia treating up to 300 patients each day.

He also provided a further $100,000 grant to the Zaynab Project to expand long-term mental health and psychosocial support for orphaned children in Gaza, including access to licensed therapists, counselling and psychological care.

Abu Sitta, the British-Palestinian surgeon, said: "Since the beginning of the war, Chambers has been a vital supporter for the provision of care for children wounded in the genocide."

Beyond Palestine solidarity, Chambers has also participated in the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and in the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

According to people close to Chambers, he remains in custody on the island of Ibiza.
"He's in jail. It's very hot. There's no fan, no books and he has no spare clothes," one person who has spoken to him since his arrest said.

The case is being handled by Spain's Audiencia Nacional, which hears international extradition requests. The court has been contacted for comment regarding the proceedings, including the outcome of the latest hearing and the date of any future hearings.

On July 10, six Spanish police vehicles surrounded Chambers’ car while he drove through Ibiza with his family, before detaining him. Since his arrest, he has been denied bail and contact with the outside world. Chambers’ detention marks the first time an individual has faced extradition to the US from Spain for supporting the Palestinian cause. 

An heir to the vast Cox family fortune, in 2023 he cut ties with his family and sold his stake in Cox Enterprises, receiving an estimated $250 million. Vowing to use this money to fund social activism and international solidarity work, Chambers has since donated over $1 million to humanitarian projects supporting those impacted by the Gaza genocide, and to support pro-Palestine activist groups and news outlets. 

The sealed indictment offers no evidence that Chambers has donated any money to “foreign terrorist organizations.” It merely states “Chambers made numerous transfers of funds from banks in the US to banks in Tunisia,” where he relocated in late 2023.

It appears Chambers used those funds for seemingly legal purposes, including investing in local businesses and sponsoring the Club Africain football team, which in May became champion of the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle. Chambers has bankrolled similar enterprises, along with political and social causes since the early 2000s, including paying the bail and legal fees of imprisoned left-wing activists. 

“The Department of Justice is politically persecuting Fergie [Chambers] because he is using his wealth to support Palestine, and help people facing genocide in Gaza. His crime is dedicating his life to building a better society, rather than exploiting people, extract wealth and profit from war,” Stella Schnabel, Chambers’ partner, told The Grayzone. “He should be home safe with our family and continuing his important humanitarian and social advocacy, not incarcerated in a foreign jail facing effective life imprisonment back in the US.”

Chambers’ arrest comes amidst bitter tensions between the Trump administration and Spanish government, with Washington lashing out over President Pedro Sánchez’s criticism of Israel’s assaults on Gaza and Iran, and his refusal to allow Washington to use his country to stage attacks on Iran. 

Chambers’ arrest occurred the same day the Washington Post reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio invited senior ministers from more than 60 countries to a meeting on tackling the alleged scourge of “transnational far-left terrorism.” Critics, including some US officials themselves, charge that the Trump administration is seeking to abuse powerful counterterrorism tools to crack down on left-wing activists. 

In May, Trump’s new counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka – a pro-Israel fanatic exposed by The Grayzone in November 2024 as a longstanding British intelligence asset – unveiled a new “counterterrorism plan” which explicitly targets supposed “left-wing extremist groups” at home and abroad. A US counterterror official recently told the Washington Post that targeting left-wing activists with accusations of links to foreign terrorist groups “can unlock certain investigative tools,” including intensive surveillance. The false conflation of Chambers’ support for activism with Hamas financing fits neatly into this vision.

In June, eight anti-ICE protestors were sentenced for a combined 450 years for their roles in a riot outside a Texan immigration detention center. The severity of their punishments in large part hinged on prosecutors successfully arguing their use of Signal to communicate, and attendance at book clubs where left-wing literature was read, demonstrated they were part of a coordinated terrorist conspiracy. Chambers’ sealed indictment indicates the Trump administration’s war on Palestine solidarity is going global.

ESPAÑOL

Detenido en Ibiza por orden de EEUU Fergie Chambers, un multimillonario estadounidense conocido por su apoyo a la causa palestina

Podemos Illes Balears reclama que se rechace esta petición de extradición al considerar que la orden responde a una persecución política.

Ibiza-13/07/2026 18:24

El multimillonario estadounidense James Cox Fergie Chambers Jr., miembro de una de las mayores fortunas del país, el conglomerado Cox Enterprises, permanece arrestado de manera provisional en Ibiza tras ser detenido el pasado sábado en cumplimiento de una orden internacional de detención, han confirmado fuentes del caso.

Chambers Jr., conocido también por su activismo político de izquierdas y su apoyo a la causa palestina, fue arrestado en la isla sin que, por el momento, hayan trascendido los delitos que se le atribuyen ni el país solicitante de esta orden de detención. Sin embargo, en un comunicado difundido este lunes, Podemos Illes Balears ha reclamado que se rechace esta petición de extradición de Chambers a Estados Unidos, al considerar que la orden responde a una persecución política.

La coordinadora autonómica del partido, Lucía Muñoz, ha acusado a la Administración de Donald Trump de intentar -"extender más allá de sus fronteras la persecución contra quienes denuncian el genocidio en Gaza y apoyan la causa palestina".

Muñoz ha defendido que España "no puede ser cómplice" y ha subrayado que cualquier decisión judicial debe estar "plenamente garantizada" por el respeto a los derechos humanos, sin utilizarse para "reprimir el activismo o la solidaridad internacional".

"La solidaridad no es un delito", ha defendido Muñoz, que advierte que "cada vez son más" los intentos de equiparar la defensa de Palestina con una "actividad criminal". La formación morada ha alertado además de que una eventual extradición podría sentar un precedente "gravísimo" y "muy peligroso" para los derechos y libertades democráticas. 
La familia denuncia "persecución política"

La familia de Chambers Jr. ha denunciado este lunes que su extradición responde a una "persecución política" de la Administración Trump por el apoyo del filántropo a la causa palestina. En un comunicado, informan que fue detenido en plena calle cuando estaba con su familia, en cumplimiento de una solicitud de extradición formulada por el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos. Un juzgado de la isla acordó su ingreso en prisión provisional, una decisión que será revisada en una vista prevista para este jueves 16 de julio.

Los familiares sostienen que la actuación de la Administración del presidente Donald Trump se enmarca en una estrategia de represión contra el movimiento internacional de solidaridad con Palestina y afirman que el empresario afronta una petición de extradición por varios cargos federales que podrían acarrearle una pena de hasta 30 años de prisión.

Según la familia, el cargo más grave se refiere a una supuesta financiación de la resistencia palestina, una acusación que califican de "fabricada" y que, aseguran, se fundamenta únicamente en transferencias de fondos realizadas por Chambers desde Estados Unidos a Túnez, país donde residía y donde desarrollaba actividades empresariales y de patrocinio deportivo.

El comunicado destaca que Chambers recibió en 2023 alrededor de 250 millones de dólares tras vender su participación en el grupo Cox Enterprises y romper sus vínculos con la fortuna familiar, destinando posteriormente ese patrimonio, según sus allegados, a proyectos de activismo social, solidaridad internacional y ayuda humanitaria.

La familia afirma también que el empresario ha donado más de un millón de libras a proyectos humanitarios en Gaza, además de financiar organizaciones y medios de comunicación favorables a la causa palestina.

La pareja de Chambers, Stella Schnabel, sostiene en el comunicado que el empresario está siendo encarcelado "porque utiliza su patrimonio para apoyar a Palestina y a quienes sufren un genocidio en Gaza" y considera que se enfrenta a una persecución política por su actividad humanitaria.

Los familiares hacen un llamamiento a juristas, políticos y organizaciones de apoyo a la causa palestina para que se movilicen el próximo 16 de julio, coincidiendo con la revisión judicial de la medida cautelar, contra la extradición y el precedente que, a su juicio, supondría para el movimiento de solidaridad con Palestina.

Hasta el momento, las autoridades españolas no han informado de los delitos concretos que fundamentan la solicitud de extradición formulada por Estados Unidos, ni el Departamento de Justicia estadounidense ha hecho pública una acusación contra Chambers.