Park businessman Naqvi loses final battle to US extradition over fraud charges
Islamabad [Pakistan]March 11 (ANI): Arif Naqvi, founder of failed Pakistani private equity firm Abraaj Group, has lost his final battle against extradition from London to the United States, Dawn reports.
In the United States, prosecutors have accused Naqvi of being the mastermind behind defrauding investors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its government arm, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Extradition took place in London High Court in 2021, but Judge Jonathan Swift granted permission in 2021 for then-Home Secretary Pretty to conduct a judicial review of his Patel’s approval of extradition to the United States. refused to give to the Pakistani people.
But lawyers representing the U.S. government argued that if extradition took place, Naqvi was given assurances that prosecutors would not object to bail before he went on trial, Dawn reported.
U.S. Government Attorney Mark Summers Claims District Judge Louis Kaplan, Judge in Naqvi Case, Is the Same One That Granted Bail to FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried He also claimed that he “strongly implied” that he would be granted bail.
However, Naqvi’s attorneys believe that whether to grant or deny bail is at the discretion of the judge, and that US authorities would change their minds if he were turned over.
Judge Swift dismissed the appeal, ruling Wednesday that there had been no “significant change” in prison conditions since the ruling authorizing Naqvi’s extradition in 2021. The judge also said his suicide risk could be “appropriately controlled” if he was in a U.S. prison.
Naqvi is currently out on bail after securing €15 million in security pending extradition proceedings. According to Dawn, he lives with his family in an apartment near Hyde Park.
The businessman, founder of the collapsed Abraj Group, was arrested in the UK on April 10, 2019 and was granted conditional bail of $20 million.
US prosecutors have accused the founder of Abraaj Group of embezzling more than US$250 million in a wide-ranging failed probe into the world’s largest private equity firm, Dawn reports. (Ani)
http://www.unitedkingdomnews.net/news/273615481/pak-businessman-naqvi-loses-final-battle-to-us-extradition-on-fraud-charges Park businessman Naqvi loses final battle to US extradition over fraud charges