'Flash Crash' financial trader accused faces full extradition hearing

A full extradition hearing is to take place for a British financial trader accused of helping trigger a multimillion-dollar US stock market crash.

Navinder Singh Sarao, 37, is wanted in the US over allegations he helped cause the so-called Flash Crash on Wall Street in 2010 from his parents' home 3,500 miles away in Hounslow, west London.

The US justice department claims Sarao and his company, Nav Sarao Futures Limited, made £26 million illegally over five years.

The former bank worker and Brunel University student, who is fighting extradition, faces charges including wire fraud, commodities fraud and market manipulation, which carry sentences totalling a maximum of 380 years.

Lawyers for the US government told a hearing in September that Sarao, who has Asperger's syndrome, also faces new allegations relating to emails he sent.

District Judge Quentin Purdy initially set a £5 million surety as part of Sarao's bail conditions, which the trader claimed he was unable to pay. He was released on conditional bail in August after providing a £50,000 surety.

The two-day extradition hearing is taking place at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.