The British financial trader accused of contributing to a multibillion-dollar stock market crash from his parents’ home has protested his innocence in an emotional interjection after a request to slash his bail security was refused.
Lawyers for Navinder Singh Sarao, 36, who is fighting extradition to the US on 22 counts of fraud and commodity manipulation, said they will now take their case to the high court after judge Elizabeth Roscoe said she would not alter a previous bail condition that required Sarao to provide security of £5m.
As he was being led out of the court and back to his cell, a clearly frustrated Sarao shouted: “I’m innocent. I was good at my job. How is this allowed to go on, man?”
His legal team argued it was now “impossible” for him to produce the funds after they discovered on 27 April that Sarao had had all his assets frozen by US authorities. The trader’s lawyers had last appeared before the court on 29 April, when they did not seek to change to his bail conditions.
Sarao has been remanded in custody for the past fortnight following his arrest on 21 April and failing to make his bail conditions. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said last month that it was seeking his extradition on allegations that he made $40m (£27m) by “spoofing” financial markets with $200m of false trades. The agency added that the supposed market manipulation contributed to the flash crash on 6 May 2010, when the Dow Jones index plunged 600 points in five minutes and created havoc in the world’s financial markets.
Sarao’s lawyers had said at the first extradition hearing that his trading account contained £5m – of which £4.7m was a loan from a body called IGC, which is thought to be an Anguilla-based company called International Guarantee Corporation. The DoJ’s complaint states that International Guarantee Corporation was incorporated by Sarao.
Last month, the Guardian revealed how International Guarantee Corporation also holds a £2m stake in a UK company linked to a former court of appeal judge, a City grandee, a pair of private equity tycoons and a media entrepreneur.
At Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday, Sarao’s lawyers asked that Sarao be freed to await a full hearing on his extradition in September, with only £50,000 provided as security by his parents.
Sarao’s lawyer, James Lewis QC, said: “It is impossible to supply the security that was ordered as a condition of his bail.”
Carl Kelvin, representing the US authorities, responded: “A security of £50,000, quite frankly, would be inadequate in this case.”
As Roscoe refused to vary the bail conditions set by judge Quentin Purdy two weeks ago, she said to Sarao: “Bearing in mind the nature of the allegations made – not just the amount but the manner of them as well – I am not of the opinion that £50,000 together with the other conditions would be sufficient to secure your attendance at court.”
Her decision provoked a bad-tempered finale to the hearing with Lewis, representing Sarao, firing back: “We’ll just go to the high court.”
Sarao’s lawyers estimate it will take around a week to secure a high court hearing.
