Man sought by US over alleged shares scam accuses Scottish and UK governments of extradition failure

Lawyers for James Craig, 65, argue that the administrations acted unlawfully by failing to implement the forum bar – a rule protecting British citizens from extradition by allowing them to invoke various bars to extradition – in Scots law, The Times reports.

Counsel for Mr Craig, Aidan O’Neill QC, told Lord Malcolm at a judicial review hearing in the Court of Session that the failure violated Mr Craig’s human rights.

He added that it was unfair that an English resident could rely upon the bar buy that someone in Scotland could not.

He said: “It is surely not right that a person from Carlisle could use forum bar to resist extradition to the United States but somebody from Stranraer could not. It is not right that the Stranraer resident does not have these rights.”

Mr Craig is accused of using Twitter to undertake a shares scam in which he supposedly spread fraudulent rumours about two firms. The US authorities allege he bought shares as they slumped following false tweets about the companies, Audience and Sarepta Therapeutics, that implied they were the subjects of federal investigation and that were made from fake accounts set up by Mr Craig.

Their shares fell, prompting Mr Craig to buy them at a discount before selling them upon recovery.

Mr O’Neill said: “It is entirely clear that the UK parliament intended these rights to be made available to those living in Scotland in the same way these rights are available to people living elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

“The act itself is supposed to cover England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is also clear that the forum bar would work in Scotland as well as England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Andrew Webster QC, for the UK government, told the judge that Westminster had not acted unlawfully.

“The court should refuse the orders being sought,” he said.