The former Cork-born financier, Mr Finbarr Ross, anxiously waited in his cell in the county jail here yesterday for a judge's decision on whether he will be extradited to Northern Ireland to face fraud charges. However the judge's order was not ready and Mr Mark Green, lawyer for Mr Ross, was told the order would be filed some time today.
Mr Ross, an ordained minister in the Light of Christ Community Church, has told The Irish Times that he is "in the hands of God".
He was arrested on March 4th at the headquarters of the church by two FBI agents who had a warrant from the RUC seeking his extradition.
Mr Ross (52) is accused of numerous counts of fraud arising out of the collapse in 1984 of his investment company, International Investments Ltd, registered in Gibraltar. The company had debts of about £7 million and had been insolvent for over a year, according to an RUC investigation. Most of the 1,200 investors came from Northern Ireland but Mr Ross ran the business from a Dublin office.
He has claimed that he was never a fugitive and lived openly in the US since 1984. He also says that he visited Ireland several times and also Britain without any difficulty.
He told The Irish Times in a telephone interview from jail that if he is released he will continue his ministry of healing after he returns to the Sparrow Hawk community on a hill near Tahlequah, where he was ordained last November and has acted as a business manager.
His lawyers have argued that under US law there is a five-year statute of limitations on charges being brought as long as a person is not a fugitive.