'NatWest Three' Fly To US

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

14 July 2006

The so-called 'NatWest Three' this week flew to the United States to attend a bail hearing, their hopes of resisting extradition in connection with the collapse of energy giant Enron in tatters.

The three men, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby stand accused of conspiring with Enron's former CFO, Andrew Festow and former global financial chief, Michael Kopper to defraud NatWest's capital markets division by secretly investing in an 'off-balance sheet' Enron partnership

The bankers had argued that as they are alleged to have defrauded a UK bank, with the misconduct taking place primarily in the United Kingdom, they should be tried there.

However, the UK's High Court earlier this year denied both their appeal for a Serious Fraud Office review of the case, and their appeal against UK Home Secretary, Charles Clarke's decision to allow them to be extradited and tried in the United States on wire fraud charges.

An emergency debate took place in the House of Commons on Wednesday, ahead of yesterday's flight to the United States. However, Prime Minister Tony Blair resisted calls to halt the extradition, and has refuted suggestions that the treaty under which the three men are being extradited is biased in favour of the US authorities.

Speaking to the BBC on the matter, their UK solicitor, Mark Spragg revealed that:

"The US prosecutors are currently suggesting they may get bail but only to live in the immediate Houston area. That won't be satisfactory at all because they're going have to put up all their money and property as collateral even to get that sort of bail."

"They won't be able to work in the US so they won't be able to earn money to pay their lawyers so I fail to see how they can get a fair fight on that basis."

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