Press Association National Newswire
A businessman whose firm helped look for Madeleine McCann and who is wanted in the US over an alleged £1.3 million fraud will face an extradition hearing today.
Irish national Kevin Halligen, 48, is accused by prosecutors in America of attempting to defraud a London law firm of 2.1 million dollars (£1.32 million).
The defendant's assets were frozen after his arrest on November 24.
Officers acting on a request from US law enforcement agencies detained Halligen after finding him in a hotel in Oxford where he had been staying under an assumed name.
The alleged crimes for which he is wanted in the US relate to money taken from a Dutch company, Trafigura, as part of a deal to secure the release of executives under arrest in the Ivory Coast.
Instead it was spent on, amongst other things, a mansion and a gift to his girlfriend, it is alleged.
The businessman's firm Oakley International had been employed by Kate and Gerry McCann for around six months in 2008 to look for their missing daughter.
In all the Washington-based firm was paid around £300,000 for its services by the McCanns.
The extradition hearing will take place at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.
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