Three British bankers wanted in the United States on Enron Corp.-related fraud charges are one step closer to being extradited back to the United States for trial after a European court refused to halt extradition proceedings.

David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew are wanted in Texas on wire fraud for allegedly stealing $7.3 million from their former employer, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc’s Greenwich NatWest Unit. The trio, who were the first to be criminally indicted in the Enron case, allegedly benefited through the sale of “Swap Sub,” one of Enron’s special purpose entities (SPE) put together by ex-Enron CFO Andrew Fastow (see Daily GPI, July 1, 2002).

The three men had been employed in Greenwich, CT by Greenwich NatWest, considered a “Tier 1” bank by Enron, which was one of a small group of banks that conducted major business deals and was given preferential treatment. According to the original indictment, the three “secretly negotiated their own purchase of NatWest’s interest” in an Enron SPE while they were still employed at NatWest and “along with Enron executives, set up a series of offshore entities to carry out their scheme.”

In trying to block extradition, the men have claimed that Britain’s arrangements with the United States are unfair. They also claim they will not get a fair trial in Texas, where Enron was headquartered.

The European Court of Human Rights, which ruled on the extradition, said a ruling on the admissibility and merits of the case is still pending. In a letter to the three men’s London law firm Jeffrey Green Russell on Tuesday, the court said it saw no immediate cause to overturn the decision of the British courts to send the men to face trial in the United States.

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