Time finally runs out for fugitive financier Finbarr Ross

Over one year after he was arrested by the FBI in an isolated area of Cherokee County, Oklahoma, and nine years since a warrant for his arrest was first issued by the RUC, fugitive financier Mr Finbarr Ross yesterday began his journey back to Northern Ireland.

The 53-year-old Cork-born founder of the ill-fated Gibraltar-based company, International Investments Ltd (IIL), which had its main offices in Dublin, made a number of attempts to fight his extradition in the US courts on the grounds that the statute of limitations had run out in relation to the alleged offences, and that he could not now get a fair trial.

The courts ruled that he was a fugitive and that the statute of limitations did not therefore apply. This was despite Mr Ross's claim that he had been living openly in the US since the mid-1980s.

The RUC extradition warrant says Mr Ross is wanted to face 41 charges relating to the collapse of IIL in 1984. The company had debts of £5 million and left some 1,200 investors at a loss. RUC documentation lodged in the courts in Oklahoma said Mr Ross was wanted to face charges of attempting to procure property by deception and false prentences; procuring property by deception and false prentences; obtaining property by deception; and false accounting.

In a statement to the US court in Oklahoma, RUC Inspector Noel Leckey alleged that Mr Ross represented his company as investing in property and oil and providing a high rate of tax-free interest for depositors, most of whom were from the North.

"In fact the monies were not invested as represented, but were used, among other purposes, to pay interest to previous investors, to fund the construction of a home for Mr Ross and his acquisition of paintings, and to make unsecured loans for the benefit of Mr Ross," Inspector Leckey alleged.

An application for bail from Mr Ross was turned down and he has been held in Muscogee City Jail since his arrest. According to Ms Julie Tierney, who has been keeping in regular contact with Mr Ross, he was taken from the jail some time early yesterday morning, before the administration workers arrived at the jail. He was not given any warning and nor was his attorney. "I was speaking to him yesterday. He had a feeling this was going to happen and he was trying to say goodbye but I wouldn't let him say goodbye," she said. Ms Tierney later went to the jail and collected the former financier's belongings.

Ms Tierney got to know Mr Ross through their involvement in the Light of Christ Community Church. Mr Ross was chief executive of the group for three years, and in 1997 was ordained a minister. Many of his friends and acquaintances from the Light of Christ Community Church have helped pay the legal costs he has incurred fighting extradition.

In March 1999 the 10th circuit appeals court in Denver, Colorado, rejected an appeal against earlier court findings that Mr Ross should be extradited. Since March Mr Ross has been awaiting a final decision from the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright. It was not expected that she would overrule the view of the courts, and that has not happened. Last night Mr Ross was believed to be in Washington DC, awaiting RUC officers who will accompany him across the Atlantic.