Agents of the National Police of the Ibiza police station identified and arrested at the Ibiza airport an individual against whom there was an international arrest and extradition warrant issued by the American Justice as alleged perpetrator of a market manipulation crime.
According to the information gathered by Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera, the individual was intercepted and arrested by agents of the Local Brigade of the Judicial Police of the UDYCO when he was at the airport facilities of es Codolar.
The investigated individual was placed at the disposal of the court. After a hearing, the Audiencia Nacional ordered his imprisonment without bail. However, subsequently, the Criminal Court upheld the appeal filed by the lawyer Jaime Campaner, legal representative of the defendant, against the order of provisional imprisonment issued by the central judge Ismael Moreno. Now, the defendant, 52 years old and of English nationality, will be able to defend himself against extradition while at liberty.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is requesting a 20-year prison sentence against the defendant, which is why Judge Moreno found him to be a flight risk.
Fraud investigation
Interpol had issued a search and arrest warrant for this defendant for the crime of fraud.
According to the indictment, the defendant and others "participated in a scheme to artificially manipulate the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar and the South African rand in order to defraud a subsidiary of a bank based in the Southern District of New York", a financial crime estimated at some 20 million dollars.