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Whistleblower wins supreme court battle against ‘politically-motivated’ extradition bid by Monaco

Jonathan-Taylor.jpg
Jonathan-Taylor.jpg

A British whistleblower who exposed a multi-million pound bribery scandal in Monaco has won his supreme court battle against a “politically motivated” attempt by the principality to extradite him on “flawed” allegations of corruption.

Lawyers for Jonathan Taylor claimed the extradition bid and an Interpol warrant for his arrest were “revenge” for his whistleblowing which led to a Monaco-based oil giant having to pay out more than £350 million to settle bribery charges with the US Justice Department and Dutch authorities.

The extradition bid and warrant saw him arrested 80 days ago in Croatia when he arrived with his wife and three children for a summer holiday. He was held in a prison cell for five days and nights with criminals and stripped of his passport, leaving him trapped largely alone in the country.

He told The Daily Telegraph that he was “elated” by the news although he has to wait another ten days for the judgement to be processed by Croatia’s supreme court. His lawyers are confident his appeal against the Interpol warrant will also be successful.

Mr Taylor said it went some way to demonstrating that “the judicial system does support whistleblowers particularly in Europe.”

While trapped in Croatia, Mr Taylor revealed he has been investigating further evidence of alleged corruption in Monaco said to include multi-million pound bribes of government officials.

“I blew the whistle on significant multi-million dollar fraud instigated and executed in the Principality by its biggest private sector employer, SBM Offshore,” he said.

“The Monaco Prosecutor has taken no action against anyone in connection with that, just action against me in seeking to discredit and silence me and it has failed miserably at that whist taking over 90 days of my life away (by the time I get home) in the process and causing heartache to myself, my family and other loved ones in the process.”

Mr Taylor, now a freelance legal contractor based in Southampton, left SBM in 2012 but was then accused of extortion as he tried to negotiate a compensation settlement for his loss of earnings from blowing the whistle.

SBM, which did not admit guilt in the settlements, has previously told The Telegraph it had dropped any legal action against Mr Taylor.

The Monaco justice department was contacted for comment but has previously maintained Mr Taylor is being investigated by a judge whose invitations to him to come to Monaco have been spurned.