Brits in Enron fraud case face Thursday extradition

[Judi Lynn]

July 10, 2006, 6:45AM
Brits in Enron fraud case face Thursday extradition

Associated Press

LONDON -- Three British bankers will be extradited Thursday to face Enron-related fraud charges in the United States, their lawyer said today.

Mark Spragg, who represents the trio, said they were scheduled to depart Thursday morning.

On the same day, a British government minister plans to fly to the United States to urge the Senate to ratify the treaty under which the bankers are being extradited. "I want to have the opportunity to explain face to face our frustration at the Senate's delay," Home Office Minister Baroness Patricia Scotland wrote in Monday's Financial Times.

David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby are at the center of campaign by Britain's business community and opposition lawmakers to highlight what they say is the misuse of a treaty — not yet ratified by the United States — that was purportedly drawn up to bring terrorists to justice.

They are called the NatWest Three because they are all former executives at Greenwich NatWest, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. They are the first major test case of the use of the treaty to cover white-collar crime. Several other cases are pending.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4036037.html

[maddezmom]

1. kick

[Judi Lynn]

2. Accused bankers bound for Texas jail

Accused bankers bound for Texas jail

James Button Herald Correspondent in London
July 12, 2006

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/11/britishbankers_wideweb__470x307,0.jpg

Fighting extradition … from left, Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew.
Photo: Bloomberg

AT 9.30 tomorrow morning, three prominent British bankers will almost certainly be flown from London to Texas in the custody of United States marshals.

There, they will be dressed in orange boiler suits and chained hand and foot before being sent to the forbidding Federal Detention Centre, where they will await trial for a year or more in the wire cages that in Houston pass for prison cells.

Only a last-minute intervention from the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, can stop the extradition of the NatWest Three, as they are known. That seems highly unlikely, but he is reportedly working hard to get the men bail.

Either way, the case is a mighty headache for Mr Blair. It has outraged the business establishment, which is demanding the Government halt the extradition in the name of "British justice", and is likely to provoke a revolt against the Government today in the House of Lords.
(snip/...)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/accused-bankers-bound-for-texas-jail/2006/07/11/1152383741854.html

[acmejack]

3. Houston Federal Detention Center

Their new home...

[VegasWolf]

4. Looks like a Hilton from the picture - ammenties ? free wifi? expresso

maker in each cell? plasma TV? I've seen a lot of worse looking jails in Texas.

[acmejack]

6. You have to be a registered guest to enjoy the amenities.

The link I posted has the rules for people turning themselves in, didn't sound like much fun. I enjoyed a night in a Texas county jail once, it was a thoroughly disagreeable experience.

[TexasLawyer]

5. Britain-- obey the treaty you signed!

Lucky US-- we never signed the treaty.


"But whereas Britain ratified the agreement in its 2003 Extradition Act, the US Senate has failed to do so. Critics say that makes it a one-sided bargain, which gives the US too much power in British affairs by allowing it to extradite suspects from Britain far more easily than the other way around."