ST. JOHN'S, Antigua (AP) -- An Antiguan judge on Monday upheld a decision paving the way for the U.S. extradition of a former financial regulator indicted in an alleged $7 billion swindle by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford.
High Court Judge Mario Michel on Monday rejected Leroy King's challenge on a magistrate's 2010 ruling.
The decision to extradite is now in the hands of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, who also serves as the Caribbean country's external affairs minister. He made no immediate comments about King.
King was fired in 2009 as Antigua's top financial regulator after being accused of accepting bribes to turn a blind eye to irregularities in Stanford's financial empire. He also allegedly wrote false and misleading letters to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dane Hamilton, King's attorney, would not comment about Monday's ruling, except to say that his client is "exploring other legal options."
King, who remains under house arrest at his beachfront condominium just outside the capital of St. John's, had led Antigua's Financial Services Regulatory Commission. He has been indicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of the SEC.
U.S. prosecutors allege Stanford orchestrated a massive Ponzi scheme by advising clients to invest more than $7 billion in certificates of deposit from the Stanford International Bank in Antigua.
Stanford's attorneys contend the financier was a savvy businessman whose financial empire, headquartered in Houston, was legitimate.
At Stanford's trial in Texas last week, the financier's former finance chief testified that bribes of at least $10,000 to $15,000 were allegedly paid every three months to King.
King helped tip the financier off in 2005 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the CD program, Davis testified. Stanford help write the response King sent back to the SEC in 2006 saying his agency had found nothing wrong at the bank, he said.
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