Alleged 'Hollywood Con Queen' loses fight against extradition from UK to US
A gavel and a block is pictured at the George Glazer Gallery antique store in this illustration picture taken in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., August 18, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/Illustration
LONDON - An Indonesian national dubbed the "Hollywood Con Queen" by the media for allegedly impersonating top female movie industry executives in a seven-year fraud on Tuesday lost his bid to block his extradition from Britain to stand trial in the U.S.
Hargobind Tahilramani is wanted in California on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly defrauding around 300 people out of a total of approximately $1 million between 2013 and 2020.
The 45-year-old is accused of tricking people into travelling to Indonesia and paying exorbitant fees for non-existent film work, before he was arrested in a hotel in Manchester, England, in November 2020.
Tahilramani's extradition was approved by a judge and then British ministers in 2023, but he challenged the decision to send him to the U.S. to stand trial, arguing prison conditions would breach his human rights due to his mental health.
His lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told London's High Court in April that Tahilramani, who has applied for asylum in Britain, was also at risk of being attacked in prison as a gay man.
Fitzgerald said this meant Tahilramani was likely to be held in isolation while in pre-trial detention, which put him at high risk of suicide given his underlying mental health issues.
But Tahilramani's appeal was dismissed by Judge Derek Sweeting, who said in a written ruling that the lower court was not wrong when it ordered his extradition to stand trial. REUTERS
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