London trader evades US extradition in "watershed" Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court has blocked the extradition of a London-based trader to the United States through a decision that turned on the location of where the "acts specified in the extradition request were physically done", and - if they were held to take place in the United Kingdom - whether they would constitute an offence here.

By Neasa MacErlean

Overturning a High Court judgment, the five Supreme Court judges unanimously held that Joseph El-Khouri, a UK-based dual British and Lebanese national, would not be subject to the terms of the US extradition request. Mr El-Khouri was alleged to have made profits of nearly US$2 million on the basis of insider information about six US companies; in return for the tip-offs he was said to have funded expensive hotel bills in New York, the renting of a ski chalet in France and the chartering of a yacht in Greece.