Joseph El-Khouri, a securities trader with close ties to Monaco, has been denied bail in an insider trading case.

Mr El-Khouri, 52, is a potential flight risk with “significant financial resources” who regularly travels to Monaco, according to Robert Jansen, an extradition lawyer with the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, acting on behalf of the US authorities.

Mr El-Khouri’s lawyer, Edward Jones of Hodge Jones & Allen, claimed at Westminster magistrates court that his client was a dual UK-Lebanese citizen and was “not a major player” in the alleged scheme.

The US had been unsuccessful in extraditing another co-conspirator in the alleged fraud from Monaco to the US, Mr Jansen told the court. He did not identify the co-conspirator, but Bloomberg has reported that the suspect, Benjamin Taylor, 35, was being held in Monaco in May this year pending extradition to the US. But extradition was refused because the extradition request was in English, not French.

PHOTO: Joseph El-Khouri ORIGINAL SOURCES: FT, Bloomberg, New York Times, others