{"id":10086,"date":"2025-02-13T00:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T00:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=10086"},"modified":"2025-02-13T00:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T00:08:09","slug":"uk-trader-wins-fight-against-extradition-to-us-on-insider-trading-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=10086","title":{"rendered":"UK trader wins fight against extradition to US on insider trading charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The extradition to the US of a trader accused of netting $2mn from insider trading has been quashed by the UK\u2019s highest court, in an unusual decision by British judges to curb the reach of American justice.<\/p>\n

Extradition lawyers said Washington\u2019s ability to pursue other suspects based in the UK could be hindered after the Supreme Court on Wednesday prevented the removal of Joseph El-Khouri as nearly all the alleged criminality took place on British soil.<\/p>\n

El-Khouri, a dual British and Lebanese national who lives in the UK, was charged in New York in 2019 with taking part in a broad insider trading conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The Manhattan US attorney\u2019s office claimed he obtained tips about prospective mergers and acquisitions of New York-listed companies and used them to trade financial instruments through a UK broker.<\/p>\n

The US prosecutors said 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.<\/p>\n

El-Khouri resisted extradition and accused the American authorities of over-reach. His lawyers argued that any links to the US were tenuous as the alleged misconduct took place in London.<\/p>\n

The UK government had ordered that El-Khouri be sent to the US after a lower court hearing in 2021 allowed his extradition. An initial appeal by the trader at the High Court in London failed.<\/p>\n

But a panel of five senior judges, including Supreme Court president Lord Robert Reed, on Wednesday ruled unanimously in El-Khouri\u2019s favour, blocking his removal as the alleged criminality occurred outside the US.<\/p>\n

The only alleged act that took place within the US was payment for the middleman\u2019s hotel room in New York, but this was \u201cpurely incidental\u201d to the case, the court said.<\/p>\n

El-Khouri was accused of using inside information to turn a $2mn profit from \u201ccontracts for difference\u201d, or CFDs, derivatives that allow traders to track the price of an asset without owning the underlying security.<\/p>\n

The judges noted that while the value of the CFDs was tied to that of the New York-listed companies, the instruments themselves are not traded in the US. El-Khouri dealt through his UK broker.<\/p>\n

Edward Grange, partner at Corker Binning and a leading extradition lawyer, said the decision would send \u201cshockwaves through the Department of Justice\u201d in Washington.<\/p>\n

He also said it would lead to other cases before the UK courts \u201chaving to be reconsidered where the extradition request consists of conduct physically occurring outside the US\u201d. <\/p>\n

El-Khouri\u2019s lawyer, Richard Cannon of Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, said the ruling \u201cbrings to an end a five-and-a-half-year nightmare\u201d, adding that the decision \u201crepresents an important check on over-reach\u201d by the US authorities.<\/p>\n

The US state department in London did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court in its ruling noted that the UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority investigated El-Khouri between November 2016 and January 2018 before concluding there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.<\/p>\n

The UK regulator found that no participant could provide a narrative to explain how the alleged insider trading scheme operated and identified weaknesses in the available circumstantial evidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free The extradition to the US of a trader accused of netting $2mn from insider trading has been quashed by the UK\u2019s highest court, in an unusual decision by British judges to curb the reach of American justice. Extradition lawyers said Washington\u2019s ability to pursue other suspects based in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[598,526,1069,153,3514,154,2160],"class_list":{"0":"post-10086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-charges","9":"tag-extradition","10":"tag-fight","11":"tag-insider","12":"tag-trader","13":"tag-trading","14":"tag-wins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}