Former NatWest executives David Bermingham, of Goring, Oxfordshire, Gary Mulgrew, of Sible Hedingham, Essex, and Giles Darby, of Lower South Wraxall, Wiltshire, are facing extradition to the United States, following the dismissal of their appeal to the English court in February.
The trio, all UK citizens, are accused of defrauding Greenwich NatWest, a subsidiary of British parent company NatWest, of 7.
million US dollars (4.
million) by ‘wire fraud’ using international banking systems, specifically a Cayman company structure partly controlled by top Enron executives.
However, Mourant lawyer Justin Harvey-Hills says the only tangible connection with the USA is correspondence by e-mail and a meeting in Houston six years ago at which, it is alleged, the scheme was discussed.
Outlining the case in a recent ‘client alert’, Mr Harvey-Hills said the extradition was possible only because of the new UK Extradition Act, on which Jersey’s new Extradition Law 2004 is based.
Jersey-based practitioners could therefore find themselves being extradited to the USA in respect of alleged criminal conduct which occurred either in Jersey, or elsewhere, he suggests
