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Bail plea from Madeleine McCann businessman wanted in America
2 Dec 2009A businessman whose firm helped look for Madeleine McCann and who is wanted in the US for an alleged £1.3 million fraud will appear in court today.
Kevin Halligen, 48, will be allowed to apply for bail when he faces City of Westminster magistrates following his arrest on an extradition warrant in Oxford.
The US Department of Justice issued an indictment for Halligen, from Surrey, last month alleging that he tried to defraud a London law firm of 2.1 million US dollars (£1.3 million).
They claim he took the money as part of a deal to secure the release of Dutch business executives arrested in the Ivory Coast, but instead spent it on a mansion, a gift to his girlfriend, cash machine withdrawals and debit-card transactions.
He was arrested at a hotel in Oxford on November 24 where he had been staying for several months under an assumed name.
Halligen's firm, Oakley International, was used by Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry for around six months last year to look for their missing daughter.
The Washington-based firm was paid about £300,000 by backers of Mr and Mrs McCann to help look for the child after she went missing from an Algarve resort in May 2007 at the age of three.
The six-month contract saw the firm hire other private detectives, set up a hotline and process information. The firm had initially been given a £500,000 contract but the McCanns terminated the arrangement before paying any more fees.
The Irish national, who is being held in custody, had been staying at a series of addresses over the last eight months in a bid to evade reporters, the court heard during his first appearance.
At the hearing last month, Melanie Cumberland, acting for the UK Government, said Halligen was wanted in the US for taking money from the Dutch company Trafigura, via a London-based law firm, and failing to send it as agreed on the release of their employees.
She said he had been employed after the pair were arrested following a petro-chemical spill on the Ivory Coast. Instead, she said, he spent 1.7 million dollars (about £1 million) on a mansion, 141,000 dollars (£84,000) in a gift to his girlfriend and more than 43,000 dollars (£26,000) in cash on other items.
When he was arrested at the Old Bank Hotel in Oxford over a discrepancy in a bill of just more than £5,000, police discovered he had already packed his bag in readiness to leave, she said.
