ANTIGUA CONTINUES TO DELAY CHOKSI EXTRADITION, CLAIMS LEROY KING CASE 9-YEAR DELAY NORMAL

Mehul "CBI" Choksi

Government officials in Antigua & Barbuda have apparently embarked upon a public relations campaign, regarding unexplained delays in any movement towards extradition of the fugitive billionaire Indian fraudster, Mehul Choksi, while at the same time attempting to justify why former Antigua banking regulator, Leroy King, still remains at large after a nine year effort, by the United States, to bring him to justice in the Stanford International Bank scandal.

First, Antigua officials sent the Director of Public of Prosecutions on a monthl-long holiday, right after he was designated as the primary individual responsible for the Choksi case, rather than the Attorney general. Then, he has been "reviewing" the extradition documents, with no end in sight. Anyone familiar with the law of extradition, as it is practiced in the English Common Law jurisdictions, knows that the only issue is whether the individual is the one and the same person as the one demanded in the extradition documents. No other issue may be considered. Anything else is dilatory, interposed purely for the purposes of delay. Antigua's officials obviously fail to understand the damage that its actions are inflicting upon its national image, as well as attractiveness to foreign investors, who have observed that the Rule of Law is not applied when wealthy fugitives are involved, especially when they hold CBI passports, and freely spend illicit wealth in Antigua.

Moving on to Leroy King, the Director of Public Prosecutions had the temerity to suggest that allowing King's attorneys nine years to file multiple (and legally improper) appeals, claiming violations of "Constitutional rights." has cost him, and his government, any credibility. King was twice ordered extradited, but he remains free, due to his intimate first-hand knowledge of massive official corruption.   

Leroy King and R Allen Stanford

India is insisting upon Choksi's extradition, and considering that it is a member, like Antigua, of the Commonwealth of Nations, the matter may take a nasty turn before it is over.