British boss fighting US extradition --Observer

[Demeter]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329601222-102271,00.html



British boss fighting US extradition
Many more UK executives could be snared if Norris loses key legal battle over price-fixing

Richard Wachman, city editor
Sunday October 15, 2006


Ian Norris, former boss of engineering group Morgan Crucible, is to appear in the High Court in London this week to appeal against a government decision that would allow him to be extradited to the US to face price fixing charges. If convicted, Norris would almost certainly be imprisoned.
The case has enormous implications for scores of other British businessmen who could be extradited and jailed in the States for alleged offences committed before price-fixing became a criminal offence in Britain under the 2002 enterprise act.

Norris's case echoes the campaign fought by the NatWest Three, who were extradited via a fast-track process put in place by UK legislation in 2003 that was designed to speed the transfer of suspected terrorists to the US.

As with the NatWest Three, who were implicated in the collapse of Enron, lawyers representing Norris are outraged that while Britain must produce hard evidence against American suspects before they can be extradited to this country, American prosecutors can do so on the basis of 'minimal information'. 'This is a much lower threshold than holds for British applications,' says Norris's solicitor, Alastair Graham from legal firm White & Case.

British business is widely hostile to the extradition act and America's onerous Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, put in place after the failure of Enron and WorldCom.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

[Benhurst]

1. Lets put the lower threshold on Amercan suspects. Fair's fair.

Send all the crooks to prison where they belong, both our crooks and theirs.