Former solicitor extradited

INVESTIGATION: ex-partner accused of $20 million fraud with colleague to appeal conviction

Former solicitor Andrew Rutherford Warren was extradited to the US recently following his indictment for money laundering there in 1999.

But his former partner Stuart Creggy - who was sentenced earlier this year to community service and a $6,000 fine - is to appeal against his conviction.

Mr Warren - once a partner with now-defunct London firm Talbot Creggy & Co - was arrested in London in 1998 with fellow partner Stuart Creggy following a joint UK/ US investigation.

Mr Warren was indicted in New York in June 1999.

In July 2000, UK magistrates agreed to his extradition, but his lawyer - Steven Barker of London firm Barker Gillette - wrote to the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, asking him not to send Mr Warren to the US because he was believed to be suffering from acute depression.

Last year, the US state department sent a diplomatic note - via the US embassy in London - to the Home Office, asking it to speed up its decision on Mr Warren's extradition.

Mr Warren is currently being held under arrest at Bellevue Hospital in New York where he is being examined to see whether he is suffering from stress.

Mr Barker said he would shortly liaise with US attorneys who will take up Mr Warren's case.

Mr Warren is accused of violating securities, banking and tax laws, using bogus corporations which had been set up in offshore jurisdictions.

It is claimed that the alleged frauds brought in more than $20 million.

Creggy was found guilty of conspiracy and falsifying business records in New York following a 19-day trial last December (see [2002] Gazette, 12 December, 6).

He was spared a prison term because he suffers from leukaemia, and was sentenced in February to 500 hours' community service and a $6,000 fine.

Sentencing Creggy, judge Jack Morelli reproached the New York District Attorney's (NYDA) office for using 'inflammatory rhetoric'.

In its sentencing memorandum, the NYDA said Creggy had 'contributed to William Shakespeare's sentiment that the first thing we should do is kill all the lawyers'.

Judge Morelli said: 'This is a court of law, not a theatre.'

A joint statement from Creggy's English solicitor, Jeremy Harris of Brian Harris & Co in London, and his Washington-based US attorneys, Joseph Aronica and Bryan Schilling, said: 'There are serious issues which will be taken up on appeal to the New York State appellate court.

The appeal has already been lodged.

We are confident that our client's conviction will be set aside and he will be totally vindicated.'

Jeremy Fleming