Christopher Hamilton, a British citizen and life-long resident, was sought by the USA for the purpose of prosecution in the Southern District of New York for conspiracies to commit money laundering and wire fraud related to the bogus cryptocurrency ‘OneCoin’. The global fraud is said to have caused three and a half million victims to lose over $4billion. The central allegation was that Mr Hamilton had used his UK-based financial services company to launder through UK banks part of the proceeds of the fraud received from the USA. Following proceedings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the Secretary of State ordered his extradition in 2022.
On 16 November 2023, the Divisional Court (Sharpe LJ, President of the King’s Bench Division; Johnson J) allowed Mr Hamilton’s appeal concluding that his extradition was barred by reason of forum because his extradition would not be in the interests of justice.
Ben Lloyd and Adam Payter acted for Mr Hamilton instructed by Katy Smart, Marlon Grossman and Fiona Haddadeen of Sonn MacMillan Walker.
The judgment can be found here. Information about OneCoin can be found here and in the BBC podcast, the Missing Cryptoqueen, found here.
