Sarao Loses Bail Appeal as Judge Says He Is a ‘Flight Risk’ 

Navinder Singh Sarao lost a bid to secure bail while he fights extradition to the U.S. on market-manipulation charges as a judge said the 36-year-old trader was a clear flight risk.

Judge Ross Cranston refused to remove or reduce the 5 million-pound ($7.8 million) bail amount [Related article: Flash Crash case heads for high court as judge upholds £5m bail ] at a hearing in London Wednesday unless Sarao can prove he does not have access to undisclosed offshore funds holding his trading profits.

Sarao was charged last month by U.S. prosecutors with 22 counts of fraud and market manipulation. He was responsible for one in five sell orders during the frenzy on May 6, 2010, when investors saw almost $1 trillion of value erased from U.S. stocks in minutes, according to U.S. authorities. He is subject to a worldwide asset freezing order, which means he is unable to pay the bail money, according to his lawyers.

Sarao’s lawyer, James Lewis, tried to argue a 50,000 pound-surety from his parents, who were at the hearing, was enough to secure his release without Sarao posting 5 million pounds himself.

He told the judge Sarao was from a “close-knit family” and it was “inconceivable” he would flee and allow them to lose their life savings. The parents also offered their house as a surety, an offer U.K. courts rarely accept from relatives of defendants.

$40 Million

Cranston said 50,000 pounds compared with the $40 million in profits U.S. prosecutors say Sarao has made was “no assurance at all,” and the fact he has no partner or children means he doesn’t have strong enough ties to keep him in London.

Sarao faces the prospect of months in London’s Wandsworth prison before the extradition is settled. Lewis said he was “fairly certain proceedings wouldn’t conclude this year” before any appeals are exhausted.

While another lawyer for Sarao, Richard Egan, said he was disappointed, Cranston’s ruling leaves some hope of release before an extradition hearing scheduled in September.

It “appears the door has been left open slightly ajar” to come back again if we can show he has no other access to assets, Sarao’s lawyer Richard Egan said after the hearing. “Obviously we’re disappointed.”

Sarao, who defiantly protested his innocence at a hearing two weeks ago, didn’t attend today’s proceedings.

The case is Sarao v. United States of America, High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, NO. CO/2116/2015

Source: Bloomberg – Sarao Loses Bail Appeal as Judge Says He Is a ‘Flight Risk’

 

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