Fugitive financier Ross to fight extradition from US

The Irish financier, Mr Finbarr Ross (52), is to contest his extradition when the case comes before a court in the US on Monday, according to one of the three lawyers who have been engaged to defend him.

Mr Tom Patton, a lawyer experienced in US extradition cases and based in Washington DC, said Mr Ross would contest his extradition on a number of grounds "and, in particular, on the grounds that we believe this claim is very stale".

The RUC is seeking to have Mr Ross extradited to face changes in relation to the collapse in 1984 of International Investments Ltd (IIL), a Gibraltar-based offshore investment company.

Some 1,200 investors, the majority of them from Northern Ireland, were left at a loss when the company collapsed with debts of £7 million.

The RUC first issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr Ross in November 1990. Further warrants were issued in June 1996 and, subsequent to this, an extradition request was made to the US. Mr Ross has been in the US since 1984.

"We will be raising more than one defence but, in particular, that this claim is very stale," said Mr Patton. "This was all 14 years ago and being made stand trial for something that happened so long ago is fundamentally unfair."

Mr Ross was arrested in the beginning of March outside Tulaquah, Oklahoma, where he has been active with an evangelical Protestant church, the Light of Christ Community Church. He is being held in Muskogee City Jail. Friends and associates from the church are supporting Mr Ross and have raised money to pay his legal fees.

Mr Matthew and Ms Julie Tierney, from Muskogee, who have been instrumental in fundraising for Mr Ross, said they had raised $20,000 and that this would pay the legal expenses up to Monday. "We've known him for four years and he has not had four pennies to rub together," said Ms Tierney. Mr Ross was represented at an earlier hearing by lawyers Mr Donn Baker and Mr Mark Green, who are now being joined by Mr Patton. Ms Tierney said Mr Ross had not received financial support, other than the $20,000 which had been raised.

The RUC officer prosecuting the case, Insp Noel Leckey, in a deposition to the US court, said the depositors' money was invested mainly in unsecured loans to individuals or related companies set up by Mr Ross. Following the collapse of the company the loans proved to be, in the main, irrecoverable.

A 1995 letter from the British attorney general to an Irish private detective, Mr William Flynn, who has maintained a long-term interest in the affair, defends the delay in prosecuting the case. According to the letter, an RUC investigation began in January 1985 into the conduct of the principals of ILL and a number of persons who acted for the company in Northern Ireland. Police reports were submitted in 1987 and 1990. Warrants for the arrest of Mr Ross and another man were issued in November 1990. An application was then made to collect evidence in Gibraltar.

A third report, focusing on the second man - who is not being named for legal reasons - was submitted in August 1991. The evidence against this man was then reviewed and it was concluded there was no reasonable prospect of obtaining a conviction. The charge against the man was withdrawn in May 1992.

Depositions taken in Gibraltar were received in Belfast in January 1994 and further enquiries then ensued. A fourth police report was submitted in November 1994, and legal advice was received in February 1995. The decision was taken that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with charges against Mr Ross.

"It should be recognised that this has been a complex and difficult investigation," the British attorney general's office told Mr Flynn. The difficulties had been exacerbated by the fact that a significant part of it had to be conducted outside Northern Ireland and because one of the principals, Mr Ross, was in the US.

A number of the companies linked with the IIL funds were detailed in evidence to the High Court in Dublin in 1984. Mr Timothy Revill, who had been appointed as provisional liquidator of IIL by the Gibraltar Supreme Court earlier that year, told the court he believed ILL was beneficially interested in the entirety or a part of the share capital of six companies.

The companies were: Anchor Properties Ltd; Kenansville Ltd; Shellmar (Investments) Ltd; Shellmar (Holdings) Ltd; Centenary Investments Ltd; and Davesco Ltd. Mr Revill said there might be other companies which he did not know of at that time. He was seeking to prevent the disposal of certain assets.

In the event it was discovered that the assets in Ireland and the US, which were linked to Mr Ross, were heavily mortgaged to the banks.