NSW:Man fails to stop 1986 fraud charges

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2011
NSW:Man fails to stop 1986 fraud charges

SYDNEY, Aug 25 AAP - A foreign exchange dealer who moved overseas 18 years ago has
failed to stop Sydney criminal proceedings which allege he misappropriated almost $US1.5
million in 1986.

Andrew Clement Koval faces 49 fraud charges alleging he misappropriated $US1,478,451
from his former employer Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA).

He moved to the United States in 1993 and did not return until December 2009, after
extradition proceedings.

Last November, a Sydney magistrate described the prosecution delay as "extraordinarily
lengthy", but refused to permanently stay the proceedings.

Koval then took the case to the NSW Supreme Court, but on Thursday Associate Justice
Joanne Harrison affirmed the magistrate's decision.

"These offences are alleged to have occurred between January and October 1986," she said.

"However, they were not detected until 1992 during the preparation for a civil action
between AWA and its auditors arising out of foreign exchange losses incurred by AWA."

Extradition proceedings began in 1995 but the papers were not finalised until 2000
and Koval was not located until 2005.

The US Justice Department had advised that Koval "seems to have disappeared without
a trace", even though his name was in the telephone directory and he held a driver's licence
in Texas in 2002.

As well as the issue of delay, Koval's lawyers argued that he could not get a fair
hearing due to the death of two important witnesses, who were his superiors in 1986.

But the associate judge rejected the challenges to the magistrate's decision, concluding
he made no error of law.

AAP mss/wjf/dep/de

KEYWORD: KOVAL

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