Abraaj founder Arif Naqvi gets record $20mn bail in London

Arif Naqvi, the founder of buyout fund Abraaj Group, can be released on conditional bail of £15mn ($20mn) after a London judge dismissed prosecutors’ bid to keep him in custody while he fights extradition to the US.Naqvi – who’s caught up in an American fraud probe – was granted bail by Judge Michael Supperstone on Friday. The bond amount is “the largest security ever ordered in the UK,” according to Naqvi’s filings for Friday’s hearing.During his bail, the 58-year-old must surrender his travel documents, wear an electronic tag and stay in his London home. Naqvi’s bail conditions “effectively amount to house arrest,” the judge said.Prosecutors said they feared he may flee to Pakistan rather than face the American charges. An electronic monitoring tag “is not a panacea, as anyone involved in Mr Assange’s case will tell you,” Rachel Kapila, the US government’s lawyer, said at the hearing. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was reportedly wearing an electronic tag when he entered Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012.“I am not persuaded” that “there’s a real risk” that Naqvi will fail to surrender to authorities, “if appropriate conditions are imposed” on his bail, the judge said on Friday.Naqvi is one of several Abraaj officials caught up in a probe of what had been the Middle East’s biggest private-equity fund. He is charged with inflating the value of the Dubai-based firm’s holdings and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. He denies the accusations and says the idea he took money out for his own personal benefit is “ludicrous.”Naqvi’s sureties include Javed Ahmed, the former chief executive officer of Tate & Lyle Plc, who’s “willing to stand £300,000” for Naqvi, his lawyer Hugo Keith said at the hearing.