Sarao isn't your average 'Wolf of Wall Street'
Stock trader Navinder Singh Sarao has hired a team of legal experts ahead of an appeal in the High Court, for being accused of causing the 2010 ‘Flash Crash’ in the US.
The 37-year-old British trader has gained the nickname ‘Hound of Hounslow’ after allegations which could lead to him facing a 380-year prison sentence.
Sarao faces a total of 22 charges, which legal experts believe will be a battle against extradition. This ‘uphill battle’ is due to the accusations of Sarao allegedly making 875,000 US dollars on the day of the ‘flash crash’ on 6 May 2010. This claim results in Sarao allegedly earning £26 million over a five-year period.
This ‘uphill battle’ is due to the accusations of Sarao allegedly making $875,000 dollars on the day of the ‘flash crash’ on 6 May 2010. This claim results in Sarao allegedly earning £26 million over a five-year period.
Sarao has since bolstered his legal team by adding experts to it, including solicitor Richard Egan, who said: “For the US, the bar is very low, they don’t have to prove any facts.
“All they have to allege is that it is a crime in the US and the UK, that his conduct amounts to an offence in the UK, that he committed a fraud.
“We are arguing that it doesn’t amount to that.”
Other legal experts have advised that Sarao argues a ‘lack of dual criminality’.
After being accused of wiping millions of pounds 3,500 miles away from Wall St, the ‘Hound of Hounslow’ faces the prospect of trial by jury in a Chicago court.
Sarao could strike a plea bargain with US authorities, but Andrew Katzen, a partner at Hickman and Rose, states:
“The courts balance the rights of individual defendants with the ‘powerful public interest in honouring extradition agreements with friendly states’.
[The courts] often decide that the need for international cooperation in criminal justice takes priority over the little guy.”
Mr. Katzen says the court will determine whether or not Sarao’s actions were ‘honest behaviour’ and ‘normal trading practice’; ‘the hound’ had used a modified high-frequency trading programme, where he placed and cancelled orders within milliseconds.
“One thing seems clear: Mr Sarao isn’t your average ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ and shouldn’t be viewed as such,” says Katzen.
Sarao, alongside his legal experts, go to the High Court in November 2016, to see whether his case will be sent to the US to stand trial.
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