‘Flash Crash’ Trader Navinder Singh Sarao Loses Extradition Fight, Will Face Charges In US

The British trader who American authorities have linked with the market-rattling 2010 "flash crash" has lost his fight against being extradited to stand trial in the U.S. for fraud and market manipulation.

A British judge ruled Wednesday that the allegations American authorities have made against Navinder Singh Sarao warrant his extradition to the U.S. to face charges there. Sarao, a 37-year-old algorithmic trader who operated from his parents' house in West London, will fight the ruling, Reuters reported.

American securities regulators have accused Sarao of "spoofing," or placing false orders for securities with the intent to cancel them and profit off the resulting price distortions. In the months leading up the 2010 "flash crash," during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average gyrated by more than 1,000 points in a matter of minutes, Sarao's actions netted him more than $40 million, prosecutors said last year.

Sarao mostly traded stock-market futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. His lawyers have argued that the Londoner, who was diagnosed with severe Asperger's syndrome last year, should be protected from extradition due in part to "fragile" mental health. The judge rejected these claims.

Sarao spent four months in prison last year as he arranged bail. The charges of market manipulation, securities fraud and spoofing he faces in the U.S. carry a maximum combined penalty of 350 years in prison.