All that fuss.then lo and behold they were guilty all along - well done the Yanks.
Would that our authorities were as sharp and diligante as those in the US.
What do we have in place to defend us.The Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Services Authority, all the old boys still in the same incompetent waltz around each other.

robert everittt, wolverhampton,

I think I was actually one of the very few people in this country last year, who actually supported the extradition of the NatWest aka Enron Three.
I was bemused with their very high profile and slick media campaign, as well as the jingoism of a great many in this country.
The guilty plea of these criminals shows why they protested so loudly against extradition.
This whole matter: the savvy media campaign and manipulation, as well as the blatant jingoism reminds me very much of the current McCann issue.
Let us hope the truth might also eventually come out in this very sad and sorry saga.

Rupert Nathan, London, UK

Well done to the US Justice System

If they were innocent they would plead not guilty.
Why is it that 3 employees sent to get the best deal for selling a compnay owned by their own firm come to a allegedly secret illegal deal to sell the company with them as secret directors and make millions in a few months.

Now I think that just because British Justice system is useless at convicting White Collar Criminals doesn't mean we shouldn't all cheer the US system.

Next time some allegedly greedy bankers are sent to do some business in US they will behave themselves.

If you plead guilty then you are guilty and must take the punishment. I mean they got away with millions no wonder my bank shares keep falling in price.

Phil , Edniburgh, UK

I feel very sorry for these 2 men. They have pled guilty not because they are necessarily actually guilty but because it will perhaps give them the best outcome in terms of years in jail.I also feel sorry for their families. America should stick to prosecuting its own citixens and stop trying to interfere with UK citizens.

Simon, London, UK

How any more ' not guilty ' bankers are there in the City? I assume the expensive PR company that they hired , all the ' city grandees ' who came to their defence plus all the gullible journalists who slavishly wrote what they were told will now come clean and apologise for trying to mislead us.

Adrian, London , Gt Britain

So the NatWest Three were crooks after all - who'd've thunk it?

Eric Murray, Auckland,

Well done the US for taking white collar crime seriously. Remember the UK pension raids with no convictions eg Maxwell.

KK, West Mids,

Had our FSA had any teeth they would have been prosecuted in the UK and the situation would never have arisen. About time the FSA started taking white collar crime seriously.

Iain, Northampton,

The NW three are now proven criminals regarding the recent case.

If Stephen of London's comments are true then Royal bank Of Canada should check it's records & so should the regulators.

I agree that there is not equality between the UK & US relationship, or the extradition support by the US, yes the USmilitary are proven to be gung ho shoot first think later types & our governement pathetic at defending our troops under any circumstances.

But the point is here that the US caught three crooks redhanded that the UK financial world & regulators missed.

MT London What was once Great Britain

MT, London, Once was once Great Britain

So sick of attitudes like those displayed by MS, who by their colloquialisms is clearly originally from the US (if I'm wrong, I apologise in advance, but I don't think I am).

It's not about the crime, it's about the double standards employed by the US, whose government NEVER accord ours mutual respect and cooperation - what's more serious, white collar crime or killing someone through military incompetence?

To quote a fictitious CIA agent from a TV program "that special relationship everyone's always going on about only applies while you guys are doing what we want you to do for us".

Never a truer word spoken.

Alex, London,

sorry to say your caption accompanying the NatWest Three is erroneous. Giles Darby features left, David Bermingham front centre and Gary Mulgrew right.

alison darby, chaumontel, france

The person who comes out very badly from all this is Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, who must rue the day she allowed herself to be cynically manipulated by three articulate fraudsters – in the interests of political point scoring about an extradition treaty.
Let's face it, is there really a difference between three criminals that heist over 3 million pounds and train robbers? Answer: Messrs Biggs et al were not constantly referred to as David, Giles and Gary (how deceptively cosy is that?).
Unlike the unfortunate Ms Chakrabarti, I am not manipulated to feel sorry for individuals who deliberately set out to defraud the depositors and shareholders, and profit to the collective tune of over USD 7 million. In my book, 3 years seems over lenient – and they should pay interest (let's say at the same 11 per cent coupon currently being paid by Citicorp). Judges, and directors and depositors of the RBS Group please note.

Robin Worrall, Copenhagen, Denmark

I'm curious why what these men isn't a crime in the UK.
And why did Natwest not pursue them when things came to light? Why are their shareholders not furious? Is a £7 million not worth worrying about? And why such sympathy in the press when it looks like they are guilty? The list of questions goes on and on. I think the Americans are the only ones who come out of this looking good.

Shaun, London, London

I wonder if they'll be sent to Terre Haute?

Paul Wray, Bradford,

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this case are, it is certainly a wake-up call to anyone trying to do business with the USA. After this episode, anyone who does must have rocks in the head.

Nicholas Lee, Windsor, UK

Having worked with these self confessed crooks I am sorry that they will only serve 37 months. They deserve 35 years. When they go in their former colleagues will raise a loud cheer as they did when they were extradited in chains. Why doen't anyone enquire about the $250m that their next employers, Royal Bank of Canada paid ABN for a dodgy swap they sold and why has no-one pressed RBS for an explanation as to why they did not prosecute them in the UK? Is it because some senior persons might have known more than they wanted to reveal in court. NatWest was a huge lender to Enron thru the Houston office. The media has done a shoddy job of investigative reporting on this case. Dig deeper-you will be surprised by what you find.

Stephen, London ,

The issue here is..a.
The issue here is....b
The issue here is...c

Oh you're all so liberal. These men stuck their hands in their employers till and walked away with $7m. If Enron hadn't gone bust, they'd be living the life of riley.

Even now after having fessed up and are about to give it back, people are still mollycoddling them. Oh you poor victims !

Their greatest achievement was to persuade the gullible that they, in some way, are heroes.

Simon, dawlish,

Plead guilty, move some money around, transferred to UK, time off for good behaviour and go home. Maintain innocence, Hit the Brit, Mel Gibson justice, and the slimey Limey rots in jail.

This isn't justice! It's blackmail, psychological torture.

Remember the money is being paid to the RBS and not to the US banks. The RBS wasn't howling for it before. The USA has passed laws that it believes have jurisdiction outside the USA. The extradition treaty, which is a one way street as they refuse to honour it, should never have passed into UK law.

Corin Keiler- Lloyd, Wolverhampton,

shame none of the requested US citizens suspected of supporting terrorism that the UK has requested (links to IRA etc) have not yet been extradited!

mole, london,

Looks like the anti-Capitalist crowd are out in force below. Lets see ANYONE facing decades in some hellhole US prison not take the least worst option to get out of it, regardless of guilt or innocence. These men should never have fallen under the provisions of this agreement, it was meant for terrorist suspects. Wrongdoing by British businessmen in Britain should be assessed and dealt with by the British authorities. If the British authorities wont or cant deal, then replace them and change the law.

Still its nice to know that so many people have such faith in the US legal system, that they are content to let the US police the world economy.

Kev Wilson, Hounslow,

Completely agree with the sentiments above.

Where was the FSA, and why did it have to fall to the US to prosecute these criminals. Well done US.

I can't believe George from Glasgow that you deem guilt immaterial. Are you also against the hunting and extradition of war criminals?

Paul Jones, London, uk

What a lot of jealous load nonsens so far as comments......fact is that these people did NOT break any Uk law, a place where they were born, lived and worked and where the business transaction, carried out utilising the best legal advice possible, was conducted with a major UK bank.

Fact - the US gets convictions by tying up innocent people for years and costing them many hundred of thousands of dollars in attempting a defence against charges brought at the whim of the Justice system for PR or publicity reasons.

Fact - these men have only copped a plea to avoid spending yet more years and hundreds of thousand or millions of their money in fighting these charges, which, if by some chance were proved, could have resulted in their spending effecitvely the rest of their lives in jail.

Fact - this government should be ashamed of itself for caving into their wrongful extradition and imprisonment yet allowing, as said already, our service men to be shot with impugnity by US forces.

Tony, Biarritz, France

Following the dreadful anti American campaign waged in the press and TV in this country, can we now shope to see ee loads of newspaper articles and leading items on TV news agreeing that the Americans were right after all!

I don't think so. Hypocites - the media that is.... and still blindly anti American.

I'm not an American, by the way, just sick of the overt racism I see in the media today.

Stephen Edwards, Wokingham, Berkshire

I agree totally with MS above. What I am concerned about is the UK system of monitoring and follow-up in these cases. Why did it take the USA to extradite and prosecute? Where was the UK legal system? Why did it not act? Where is the FSA and its cohorts? Could it have done? If not, the legislation needs to be reviewed. Also, would the case of fraudsters have created so much media pyblicity if it had been dealt with in the UK? I doubt it.
Barqueleigh
Spain

Phillip Day, Lliber,

Presumably these crooks would never have been charged in the UK, which still sees some white-collar crime as a jolly jape carried out by clever chaps in the City. Fortunately in this case we have been helped by the US to see that justice is done. Perhaps our legal people need to learn some lessons about the definition of "crime".

Al, Weybridge, UK

I happen to agree with the extradition of these three crooks. At least under the American system justice was done.
Can the same process be undertaken for the senior management of QinetiQ? Their agreement that allowed them to compensate themselves to the detriment of the UK taxpayer was with Carlyle Group, an American company.

M Jeffs, Bucks, UK

The fact that they are guilty is immaterial in this case, the real issue here is why did Britain allow British citizens to be extradited to the US when their soldiers can kill our troops by 'friendly fire' with complete impunity. This is a one way street that should either become two way or be closed completely. STOP pandering to the US and start being proud to be British again - the politicians may want to be US 'poodles' but the rest of us do not.

George, Glasgow, UK

Oh, so they DID have the $7 million !

But they are still "innocent" really. O yes.

These guys basically got away with it. If they had invested $7 million when it first fell into their laps all those years ago, they would have tripled that money by now.

Moses, Hong Kong,

Regardless of this case , faced with 35 years or 30 months unless you are a hardened gambler or deluded that justice may prevail , what would you do ?
The issue here is not the specifics but the US can extradite people from the UK without prima facie evidence, which should be changed as soon as possible Or MS has the USA never made a mistake without proper evidence ?
Answers on a postard .

simon, london,

When the bait is freedom, even the innocent plead guilty under duress for the sake of freedom, tranquility and an end to State oppression. That's what I did.

Sebastian, London , UK

Enough already.

This is what GUILTY people do - they take a for sure lesser sentence than risk big penalties.

For those who still want to defend these crooks remember - they pleaded GUILTY!!!

Also, 30+ months isn't "oh, I pleaded guilty to avoid real jail time" - more than 3 years in jail on a plea bargain? The only people who take that plea are guilty. Period So please, save the fake, nationalistic dramatics......

MS, london,