When the FBI Comes Calling…®

Sunday, July 17, 2005

U.S. Uses Law to Nab British Businessmen

By JANE WARDELL Associated Press Writer The Associated Press

LONDON -- When Britain signed a treaty with the United States in 2003 that drastically reduced the evidence required from U.S. officials seeking to extradite suspected felons, the British government said it was all about speeding up the process of bringing terrorists to justice.

What few expected to see was U.S. authorities using the law to pursue senior executives _ whose alleged offenses either took place mostly in Britain or were not even crimes here _ alongside of the likes of Abu Hamza al-Masri, the hook-handed preacher wanted on terrorism charges.

Yet that is what has happened to three NatWest bankers _ David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Derby _ who are facing charges in a $19.4 million fraud case arising from the Enron Corp. collapse, and to Ian Norris, the former chief executive of investment firm Morgan Crucible, who faces price-fixing charges.

Legal experts have cried foul because the treaty is not reciprocal. The United States has signed it, but the Senate has not yet ratified it while groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union lobby against it.

That means British officials still must meet a higher burden of evidence when seeking extraditions.

"The fact is that all these procedures have been curtailed in the name of the war on terror, but it isn't terrorists who are facing the consequences," said Jason Mansell, a London extradition lawyer.

Britain's Home Office said the United States has requested the extradition of 45 people under the law since it came into force in January 2004, and acknowledged that just three of those cases were related to terrorism. Some 22 cases were connected to fraud or theft-related white-collar offenses, with others ranging from sexual offenses to murder.

Douglas McNabb, a Texas-based lawyer who testified as an expert witness on the U.S. legal system at the Bermingham hearing is so convinced that the cases signal an escalation by U.S. prosecutors, that he is setting up shop in London for the rash of cases he expects to follow.

"I think people in London are starting to become more worried and these cases shocked them. I don't think that anyone really understood the full implications of this act," McNabb said during a recent trip to London to find office space.

The financial district, and some lawmakers, are beginning to wake up.

Boris Johnson, a lawmaker for the opposition Conservative Party, has put forth a parliamentary petition calling for Britain to refuse extraditions under the new laws and amend them to require more evidence. The motion, mainly a gauge of sentiment among lawmakers, has so far garnered 73 signatures.

"It is an absolute disgrace that these men may now be carted off to some Texas jail without even the protection of a preliminary hearing in this country," Johnson said, referring to the NatWest bankers known as the Bermingham Three. "We are not talking about international terrorists here, but British businessmen accused of defrauding a British firm. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of their case I believe those rights and wrongs should be established in a British court of justice."

Law experts said the cases show that only a tenuous link to the United States is needed to pursue such cases _ the fast-track process allows U.S. officials to apply for extradition on hearsay evidence, without first making a case on the defendant's home territory. They point out that Britain's business sector is particularly vulnerable because of its vast international work that involves contact with the United States.

"Even if all of the conduct in an alleged fraud has taken place outside of the U.S., if one telephone call is made to the U.S. or an e-mail is sent which is routed via the U.S., then the U.S. can indict a person for the U.S. offense of wire fraud," said extradition lawyer Anand Doobay. "The U.S. has an aggressive jurisdictional reach ... and is increasingly willing to exercise it."

Legal experts believe the cases of Norris and the NatWest bankers will be tests of how far the United States can stretch that reach. Nearly all the offenses allegedly committed by the Bermingham Three took place in Britain, and British authorities have shown no appetite for prosecuting them.

Norris is being pursued for his activities in the 1990s while price fixing did not become illegal in Britain until 2003. The U.S. Department of Justice has instead charged him with seven counts of conspiracy to defraud and two counts of obstructing justice, alleging that he fixed prices for carbon products between his company and competitors in Europe and the U.S. between 1989 and 2000.

A British judge ordered his extradition last month, but Norris remains in Britain after launching an appeal against that judgment. He is also applying for a judicial review of the legality of the process.

The Bermingham Three also remain in Britain after taking the extraordinary step of demanding a judicial review of the failure of the U.K. Serious Fraud Office to put them on trial here in an attempt to avoid their deportation, which was ordered by Home Secretary Charles Clarke in May.

The High Court approved their bid for that review last week, and if that fails they will be allowed to appeal Clarke's ruling.

British human rights organization Liberty claims the law could breach international human rights rules. Extradition to another country is disruptive and defendants have to wait a long time to go to trial, often held without bail, said Doug Jewell, campaigns coordinator.

"People are not sacks of potatoes to be moved around here, there and everywhere," he said.


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