By Nick Allen -
THREE British bankers accused of a multi-million-pound fraud involving officials of the failed oil company Enron said yesterday they would appeal a judge’s ruling that they should be extradited to stand trial in the United States.
They claimed the decision was a violation of their "rights as Englishmen" to be tried by a jury of their peers and accused the US government of exploiting new extradition legislation intended to deal with terrorist suspects.
David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew, the son of Trish Godman, the Scottish Parliament’s Deputy Presiding Officer and the stepson of Norman Godman, the retired MP for Greenock, face seven counts of wire fraud - illegally gaining money through international banking systems. US prosecutors want to try them in Houston, Texas, the home of Enron.
They are accused of hatching a plot with Enron’s former finance director, Andrew Fastow, and his one-time lieutenant, Michael Kopper, to persuade their then employer, Greenwich NatWest, a subsidiary of the high street bank, to sell its stake in an offshore hedging structure to Enron at a knock-down price.
At Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in London, the district judge Nicholas Evans ruled there was a "good and proper basis" for prosecuting them in the US and said extradition did not violate their human rights.
Mr Mulgrew, a father of two who grew up in a council house in Pollok, Glasgow, told Radio 4’s The World at One: "I find it bizarre that three British citizens accused of committing a fraud against a British bank, where the alleged activities took place in London, have to go to Texas to discuss it and find out whether or not we did it. We have got a perfectly good legal system here. We would have to sell our family homes to fund the legal expenses of going over there, none of which is recoverable, even if you are found innocent. It is an appalling set of circumstances for us to find ourselves in."
Mr Bermingham said: "All three of us are British, we are accused of defrauding a British bank, the alleged misconduct took place mostly in the UK and most of the witnesses that we would need to call in order to have a fair trial are here. Despite all of this, the court has said that we should stand trial in Texas.
"It puts us at a massive and unfair disadvantage and deprives us of the basic rights of British people to be tried by their peers in Britain. We will be appealing the decision, not just for ourselves, but also for others who will inevitably also be caught up by the government’s extradition law changes."
The case will first be referred to David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and the three men will have six weeks to make representations to him. He can block their extradition on only three grounds - if they were to face the death penalty, if they had already been extradited to the UK from another country or if they were likely to face further charges once in the US, none of which is thought to apply. If Mr Blunkett authorises their extradition, they would have 14 days to appeal to the High Court.
Mr Mulgrew’s MP, Sir Menzies Campbell, said: "I have no view about guilt or innocence. But I’m anxious about whether or not Mr Mulgrew and his companions will get a fair trial."
Source: The Scotsman
