Solicitor waits on Blunkett

Extradition: pressure builds on Home Office over money-laundering case against lawyer

Pressure is building on the Home Office to make a decision on whether former solicitor Andrew Weatherfield Warren should be extradited to the US following his indictment there in 1999 on charges of money laundering.Mr Warren and Stuart Creggy - another former partner with now-defunct London firm Talbot Creggy & Co - were arrested in London in 1998 following a joint UK and US investigation into money laundering.A hearing in New York in January will determine a date next year for Mr Creggy's trial; he is living on bail in the US with travel restrictions.Mr Warren was indicted in New York in June 1999, and a petition for his extradition to the US was immediately lodged by the New YorkDistrict Attorney's office.In July 2000, UK magistrates agreed to Mr Warren's extradition, but his lawyer - Stephen Barker of London firm Barker Gillette - wrote to the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, explaining why he should not send Mr Warren to the US.

It is understood that Mr Warren suffers from acute depression.Mr Barker said he was still awaiting the decision of the present Home Secretary, David Blunkett, but that following that decision, rights of appeal would still be available if it went against his client.A Home Office spokeswoman said that although it was 'not aregular occurrence' for it to take more than a year to decide a case, it was 'not unknown' for decisions to take that long.But a well-placed source within the District Attorney's office told the Gazette: 'We are hoping that the new year will bring an end to the delay to the extradition of Andrew Warren which was ordered in July last year.'The source explained that the alleged conduct 'involves the creation of corporations to conceal who is moving money, which is something we should all recognise to be dangerous in the modern world, and especially in civilised societies'.Mr Creggy is alleged - with a Canadian lawyer - to have assisted clients in violating securities, banking and tax laws, using bogus corporations which had been set up in offshore jurisdictions including Liberia and Belize.Mr Warren is alleged to have been a member of the criminal enterprise alleged to have managed the securities frauds, which brought in more than $20 million.Jeremy Fleming