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The extradition to the US of a trader who is accused of obtaining $ 2 million of prior knowledge trade has been set aside by the highest court of the UK, in an unusual decision of British judges to curb the reach of American justice.
Excuption lawyers said that Washington’s ability to pursue other suspects in the UK could be impeded after the Supreme Court had prevented the removal of Joseph El-Kourri on Wednesday, because almost all alleged crime occurred on British soil.
El-Khourri, a double British and Lebanese national who lives in the UK, was accused in New York in 2019 of participating in a broad conspiracy of prior knowledge.
The office of the American lawyers of Manhattan claimed that he had obtained tips on potential mergers and acquisitions of companies listed on New York and used them to trade financial instruments through a British broker.
The American public prosecutors said that he paid an intermediary for the information in cash and gifts, including a yacht in Greece, a chalet in France and a hotel room in New York.
El-Khourri opposed extradition and accused the American authorities of over-range. His lawyers argued that all ties with the US were weak because the alleged misconduct took place in London.
The British government had ordered that El-Kourri would be sent to the US after a lower hearing in 2021, allowed its extradition. A first appeal by the trader at the Supreme Court in London failed.
But a panel of five senior judges, including President Lord Robert Reed from the Supreme Court, judged unanimously on Wednesday in favor of El-Khourri and blocked his removal as the alleged crime took place outside the US.
The only supposed act that took place in the US was payment for the hotel room of the intermediary in New York, but this was “purely incidental” for the case, the court said.
El-Kourri was accused of using internal information to make a profit of $ 2 million from “Contracts for Difference”, or CFDs, derivatives with which traders can follow the price of an active without possessing the underlying security.
The jury members noted that although the value of the CFDs was linked to those of the companies listed on New York, the instruments themselves are not traded in the US. El-Khourri went through his British broker.
Edward Grange, partner at Corkining and a leading extradition lawyer, said that the decision would send “shock waves through the Ministry of Justice” in Washington.
He also said that it would lead to other things for the British courts “that must be reconsidered where the extradition request consists of behavior that is physically outside the US”.
The lawyer of El-Khourri, Richard Cannon or Stokoe Partnership Platitors, said that the statement “ends an end of five and a half-year nightmare”, adding that the decision “represents an important control of overray” by the US. authorities.
The US Department of Foreign Affairs in London did not respond to a request for comments.
In his statement, the Supreme Court noted that the Financial Conduct of the UK examined El-Khourri between November 2016 and January 2018 before he concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.
The British regulator found that no participant could give a story to explain how the alleged trade schedule of prior knowledge operated and identified weaknesses in the available indirect evidence.