Scottish Daily Mail

Rogue trader reveals where he hid £30m

‘Hound of Hounslow’ is granted bail

- By Chris Greenwood Crime Correspond­ent

THE British trader dubbed the Hound of Hounslow was finally granted bail yesterday after revealing where he had stashed his £30million fortune.

Navinder Singh Sarao, 37, is accused of causing a £500bill i on Wall Street crash by manipulati­ng the markets from a computer in his bedroom at his parents’ modest West London semi.

He had been granted legal aid after claiming he had no money to fight extraditio­n to the US.

But he has now admitted he has £5million stashed in UK accounts and a further £25mill i on, originally i nvested in Angola, now tied up in a Swiss holding company.

The disclosure broke the deadlock in his case and prosecutor­s agreed to grant him bail for £2.5million after freezing all his assets. His money must be transferre­d to an account controlled by both the US authoritie­s and his legal team. But it could take another two years for the full sum to be released, with only the £2.5million bail being transferre­d in the next few weeks.

The trader can now be released from prison once the bail money is deposited with magistrate­s in London. He will also lose access to legal aid.

Sarao faces a sentence of up to 380 years in a US jail if convicted of mastermind­ing the 2010 ‘flash crash’ fraud on a Chicago-based stock exchange.

He was arrested i n April, accused of making £27million over five years by flooding the markets with fake buyers and profiting from the subsequent fall in share prices. Regulators claim the Dow Jones index lost 9 per cent of its value before recovering, with Sarao making millions on the back of the slide.

At Westminste­r Magistrate­s’ Court yesterday, the trader stared at the floor as his lawyers finally won his freedom after months of legal wrangling.

Mark Summers, for the US government, said: ‘These are substantia­l allegation­s.’ He added that now prosecutor­s know where the money is, they are happy f or Sarao to be released on bail.

District Judge Quentin Purdy agreed to allow Sarao to access the internet on the grounds he does not carry out any financial transactio­ns. He must also stay within the M25.

Sarao, who denies the claims, is preparing to fight extraditio­n to the US, where he faces 22 charges including wire fraud and commodity manipulati­on. His lawyers claim he is being made a ‘scapegoat’ for the crash and that he should instead be tried in the UK. A full extraditio­n hearing will begin next month.

 ??  ?? Extraditio­n battle: Sarao
Extraditio­n battle: Sarao

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