CMKM's Edwards nearing end of extradition fight
by Mike Caswell
John Edwards, one of the alleged masterminds of the CMKM Diamonds Inc. fraud, is nearing the end of his four-year battle to avoid extradition to the United States. This summer the High Court of Justice in London rejected his appeal of an extradition order, finding that a dementia diagnosis was not sufficient to withhold him from U.S. prosecutors. It should be up to U.S. judges to decide his fitness for trial, the court found.
The decision brings Mr. Edwards, 70, one step closer to facing charges in Nevada for the massive CMKM Diamonds fraud. Prosecutors there claim that he and others, including Canada's Urban Casavant, dumped hundreds of billions of unregistered shares of the company, reaping $60-million in profits. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Mr. Edwards was a "cornerstone of the criminal enterprise," fraudulently dumping CMKM and several other companies in a scheme that went back to 1997, the government says.
Mr. Edwards was arrested for the charges in the United Kingdom (where he is a citizen) on Sept. 7, 2009. The U.S. sought his extradition on the CMKM indictment. Mr. Edwards, however, has been actively fighting the extradition, with his legal battle to date culminating in an appeal that the High Court of Justice heard on June 20, 2013.
