The former Head of Antigua’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission, Leroy King was extradited to the United States on Friday in connection with the Ponzi scheme that brought down US billionaire R. Allen Stanford who had been feted in the Caribbean for his excursion into T20 cricket.
Antigua Attorney General, Steadroy Benjamin, confirmed to the Antigua Observer that King, boarded an American Airlines flight bound for New York City late Friday afternoon.
“He complied fully,” said the Attorney General, “as we worked closely with the agents from the USA.”
Describing King’s comportment, Benjamin told the Observer, “there was no behaviour at all that showed that there was any revolting or any type of attitude which did not fit the occasion.”
“From what I am told, Mr. King had come to the realization of what was happening and he was quite prepared to accept his fate at this time.”
Friday’s extradition, the Observer said, completed a request by the US and first signed by then-Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer in 2009.
Police and immigration officers swooped down on King’s residence at the Marina Bay complex on Thursday evening and escorted the declared ‘fugitive at large’ to police headquarters where he spent the better part of the day awaiting transfer to the official custody of the US Marshals.
In 2009, he had been charged by United States authorities with committing acts of facilitation in the US$7 billion Ponzi scheme involving the already-convicted Stanford.
In a last ditch effort to stave off the extradition, King’s attorney, Dr. David Dorsett, appealed to the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda this past Wednesday for a “time extension” in his client’s process for extradition. His request was denied, however, as it was deemed “inappropriate” by the Attorney General, the Observer reported.
