In an unusual case with a bizarre set of facts, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to expedite the appeal of Ian Norris, a British businessman who is serving time in prison after being extradited to the United States to face criminal antitrust charges. Our colleague Michael Goldhaber called Norris “the poster boy of the anti-extradition movement,” in an article entitled “Vacuum Cleaner Justice,” which appeared in the June issue of our affiliate Focus Europe.
Norris, who is represented by White & Case, was accused by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division of participating in an international conspiracy to fix the price of carbon products while he was chief executive officer of the Morgan Crucible Co. The charges against him included obstruction of justice for directing the preparation of scripts that company employees should follow if they were questioned in the investigation. Morgan Crucible pleaded guilty to U.S. price-fixing in 2002.
