NatWest Three claim guilty plea was extracted under duress

[AtW]

That's kind of the point. Wire fraud isn't on the UK statue so the CPS should have found something to charge them with in the UK instead of washing their hands of it.

Wire fraud is just US name for all kinds of fraud that is done remotely - UK books cover fraud perfectly, what they don't cover is when someone actually steals money from people in other countries, that does not mean such behavior should be in any way encouraged - it's good thing US goes after those guys and it's a shame UK does not give a tulip about white collar crime.

[Moscow Mule]

They can't be because they committed crime in another jurisdiction whilst being present here.

That's kind of the point. Wire fraud isn't on the UK statue so the CPS should have found something to charge them with in the UK instead of washing their hands of it.

[AtW]

They should be tried in the UK, under UK law. The rights of the citizen should not be given away.

They can't be because they committed crime in another jurisdiction whilst being present here.

[Moscow Mule]

"They became poster boys for City fraud when they confessed to stealing $7.3m in an Enron-related fraud."

I'm not arguing with you, you ******* retard.

They should be tried in the UK, under UK law. The rights of the citizen should not be given away.

[AtW]

Wire fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - not on the UK statue books. Crime committed in the UK should be tried & punished in the UK. IIRC, the CPS weren't interested.

"They became poster boys for City fraud when they confessed to stealing $7.3m in an Enron-related fraud."

[EternalOptimist]

why dont we invent a crime, and extradite America over here for trial?


You are accused of being loud-mouthed ignorant, stupid and thick. and fat. how do you plead ass-wipes

[Moscow Mule]

You mean like what those bankers did in relation to Enron? Let me quote article:

"They became poster boys for City fraud when they confessed to stealing $7.3m in an Enron-related fraud."

Wire fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - not on the UK statue books.

Crime committed in the UK should be tried & punished in the UK. IIRC, the CPS weren't interested.

[AtW]

I find it disturbing that the US can charge people in the UK for something that is not even a crime in the UK.

You mean like what those bankers did in relation to Enron? Let me quote article:

"They became poster boys for City fraud when they confessed to stealing $7.3m in an Enron-related fraud."

[Moscow Mule]

I find that it suits UKs interest to extradite criminals to USA where they can finally face justice.

I find it disturbing that the US can charge people in the UK for something that is not even a crime in the UK.

[AtW]

Except where it suits UK interests any extradition under the treaty should be halted until such time as their congress ratifies it and it is truly reciprocal.

I find that it suits UKs interest to extradite criminals to USA where they can finally face justice.

[xoggoth]

The US is no friend to Britain, it is an entirely one sided relationship. Except where it suits UK interests any extradition under the treaty should be halted until such time as their congress ratifies it and it is truly reciprocal.

[AtW]

They became poster boys for City fraud when they confessed to stealing $7.3m in an Enron-related fraud. But the convicted British bankers once dubbed the "NatWest Three" are now recanting their guilty pleas, claiming that they were extracted under duress by a flawed American justice system.

Recently released from prison after serving half of their 37-month jail sentences for a scam dreamed up with corrupt Enron executives, two of the NatWest Three, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew, are far from remorseful. They have launched a ferocious attack on their controversial extradition from Britain to the US in 2005 and subsequent imprisonment, claiming that they only admitted fraud in order to get home as quickly as possible after frustrating delays in their criminal trial.

In a two-hour-long video on the website Ungagged.net, which is dedicated to exposing "prosecutorial abuses" in the Enron saga, Bermingham has compared the US system of plea bargaining to "Stalinist Russia", while Mulgrew asserts his ordeal was akin to "torture". (AtW's comment: in Stalinist Russia they'd get convicted for saying wrong word (nevermind real fraud) and executed within hours of decision taken place.)

"They ripped me away from my home country, away from my family and friends," said Mulgrew. "Torture takes many forms. They delayed the trial, delayed the trial."

Bermingham and Mulgrew, along with a colleague, Giles Darby, were at the centre of a furore over Britain's extradition treaty with the US that sparked questions in parliament and a march by business executives on the Home Office .

The trio persuaded their employer, Greenwich NatWest, to offload a stake in an Enron-related investment venture in the Cayman Islands for a rock-bottom price of $1m. Unbeknown to NatWest, they held a stake in the purchaser, through a deal cooked up with Enron's then finance director, Andrew Fastow, and the conspirators sold on the investment at a profit of $20m.

Pleading guilty in front of a Texas judge in February 2008, the British bankers delivered grovelling apologies. Bermingham said his conduct "fell well below the standards expected" while Mulgrew accepted that an offshore transaction in the Cayman Islands "lacked integrity", adding: "I apologise unreservedly for my actions."

But the men now say that their confessions were drawn out of them by the pressure of extradition to the US and a two-year hiatus in Houston with little money and minimal family contact.

Bermingham said he feared a mistrial if a jury failed to reach a majority verdict, further prolonging the trio's stay: "On the one hand, we were going to be able to show without any shadow of a doubt that the government's case was bulltulip. On the other hand, we were three greedy foreign bankers who'd done a deal with Andy Fastow and made $7m bucks. And you've got yourself a mistrial."

He added: "The government made it clear to us that if we agreed to plead guilty, they would recommend that we got sent home under the prisoner transfer treaty so that we could spend a good proportion, if not a majority, of our sentences in the UK where would could be close to our wives and families. But if we went to trial and lost, they said they would ensure we spent all of our sentence here [in the US]."

As part of their sentence, the trio were obliged to pay back $7.3m to Royal Bank of Scotland, which now owns NatWest. An RBS spokesman said they had reached a settlement: "The dispute between the parties has been resolved pursuant to an agreement, the terms and conditions of which are confidential."

The US department of justice declined to comment on the bankers' remarks.

The trio are now trying to rebuild careers in Britain. The men's solicitor, Mark Spragg, said there were ongoing contentious cases of British business executives being extradited to the US, including a former boss of the Morgan Crucible engineering group, Ian Norris, who was sent to the US for trial in May.

"There's a real issue here that businessmen being sent to America are under immense pressure to plead guilty to something even if they don't feel they are guilty, because it's the quickest way to get out of the system," said Spragg.

Source: NatWest Three claim guilty plea was extracted under duress | Business | The Observer

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So basically being put into public court to plead guilty or not guilty is somehow "duress"