(Bloomberg) -- A trader accused by the US of making nearly $2 million from insider dealing is set to go before the UK Supreme Court in a last ditch attempt to block his extradition.
Joseph El Khouri, who holds dual Lebanese-British citizenship and lives in London, is facing criminal charges that he traded on inside information. US prosecutors allege that the trader, and avid poker player, gave lavish gifts to middlemen, including expensive hotel stays in New York, and a yacht charter in Greece, in exchange for tips as part of an international insider trading conspiracy.
The trader’s lawyers have argued that the overwhelming majority of the alleged wrongdoing took place in the UK and that the allegations should be tried there. The alleged misconduct doesn’t amount to an extradition “offense,” they said.
“The insider dealing alleged against the appellant occurred outside the US,” his lawyer Clair Dobbin said in documents prepared for the Wednesday hearing. The alleged insiders, the middle-men, who passed the information, and El Khouri were all outside the country.
British investigators at the Financial Conduct Authority conducted their own investigation before accepting that the US was a more appropriate place to try El Khouri. He was charged in 2019 along with five other people, including former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker Bryan Cohen. The ex-banker was then sentenced to a year of home confinement after pleading guilty.
“Cases involving conduct straddling multiple jurisdictions represent the modern face of criminal law, especially in the arena of fraud,” Mark Summers, the US government’s lawyer, said.
Both the UK and the US can prosecute the case and El Khouri must not be allowed to escape prosecution, Summers said in court filings.
The FCA dropped their own probe because officials said they lacked “a narrator” who could explain the alleged overarching scheme. Meanwhile US authorities relied upon key witnesses to pursue the ring, saying that members generated tens of millions of dollars on illegal tips about drug companies.
The British courts first ruled that he could be extradited in 2021.
El Khouri was charged with 17 counts of securities fraud and wire fraud by the US. He was a small, unconnected part of a larger insider trading ring, his lawyer had previously said.
(Updates with more details of the case in the last paragraph.)
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