McNabb in the News

Senior Principal Douglas McNabb has been quoted in the Financial Times related to the extradition of white collar defendants.

The prospect makes you wonder why more of these people don't just get on the first thing smoking out of US jurisdiction.

I called on Douglas McNabb, the lead partner with Washington's McNabb Associates, who specialises in international extradition cases, espionage and other white-collar crime.

"We are seeing an escalation in global US Federal criminal prosecutions," says McNabb, "and that includes white collar crime as well as terrorism. That would include securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. They're even getting aggressive about extraditing people for antitrust violations."

In the past, extraditions were allowed by treaty parties on the basis of a "laundry list" of crimes. Now, the rule is an extraditable offence merely has to be a crime in both countries. As McNabb says: "Globally, international extradition cases are very hard to win (from the point of view of the defence counsel for the offender)."

There are very few countries with which the US does not have extradition treaties, and not that many American criminals have made arrangements in advance with the Republic of Cuba or the Islamic Republic of Iran. And where there are no such treaties, as there are none with some Middle Eastern countries, the US Supreme Court has ruled that kidnapping and rendition by Special Forces, CIA or FBI agents is not grounds for the dismissal of an indictment.

Before you have a "red notice" put out on you that identifies you as subject to an international arrest warrant, go to some relatively comfortable and welcoming country that will grant you citizenship in short order. Oh, and hire some thugs to keep the CIA kidnapping teams at bay.

"That is your conclusion," says McNabb, "but not one I would necessarily disagree with."^[1]

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[1] John Dizard, The Pros and Cons of Fleeing the Country: Street Talk, Fin. Times, Sep. 19, 2005.