US wants former FSRC head held pending extradition

(Antigua Sun) – The United States Government has requested that dismissed Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) Administrator and CEO Leroy King be held pending extradition to face charges.

He was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with several counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to obstruct the SEC, and conspiracy to launder illegal proceeds.

King was dismissed after the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda met on Tuesday to consider the report from the FSRC Board following his suspension.

Attorney-General Justin Simon said in a statement that the Cabinet decided to accept the FSRC’s recommendation that King be dismissed from his position.

The FSRC Board found that he deliberately or negligently failed to inform the board of various questionable decisions he had taken regarding the Stanford International Bank Ltd (SIBL).

At his meeting with the board prior to the report’s submission to Cabinet, he was reported to have denied the findings of the board until faced with correspondence related to SIBL that was not on file at the FSRC but which he was privy to and responded to.

He is alleged to have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Sir Allen Stanford to ignore the alleged shady operations of SIBL.

The AG told the Sun that he had received a request from US authorities that King be detained in the country pending a formal extradition process. As the implementation of this is a judicial process, he said that he would be passing it on to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Simon also reportedly said that the government will also be investigating other offshore companies on the twin-island state to ensure that no other shady operations were overlooked.

King was accused along with Sir Allen Stanford and four associates last Friday of fraud, conspiracy and obstruction relating to the alleged operation of a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.