B.C. judge orders Iranian detainee extradited to U.S. to face fraud, money laundering charges

Three elements are required before a Canadian judge can order someone’s extradition: the alleged conduct has to be illegal in Canada, there must be sufficient evidence of the alleged crime and there has to be certainty that the person in question is the person being sought.

Tammen found those elements had been met.

Tammen said the “entire body of evidence” the U.S. relies on is circumstantial and based on “potentially incriminating inferences” found in various email accounts, including that of Sari’s.

The theory is the emails reveal a conspiracy among multiple Mahan Air employees to cause U.S. banks to do business with front companies to benefit Mahan Air, he said.

Sari argued that the evidence failed to show where he had been the “directing mind” for the transactions, nor did it prove he was in a position of financial authority for any of the companies listed, the judgment said.

Sari also said “impermissible speculation and guessing will be required” to show he had been involved in a dishonest transaction or that he knew about them or intended to participate in them, Tammen wrote.

The judge said the evidence may later show that these were not “front” companies and that “may prove fatal to the case at trial, or it may not.” But he said it wasn’t the purpose of the extradition hearing to decide whether the evidence would convict.

“The sufficiency of the evidence is a concern of the extradition judge,” he wrote. “Reliability is not.”

“At this juncture, it is sufficient if the evidence shows a connection between Mahan Air and the alleged front companies which is capable of supporting an inference that certain financial transactions were done for the benefit of Mahan Air using the other company,” he wrote.