A DODGY “detective” accused of conning £300,000 from the Madeleine McCann fund
is to be handed to the FBI — thanks to The Sun.
Kevin Halligen will be extradited on Thursday after losing a battle in the
Supreme Court.
He had been fighting deportation to the US — where he faces £1.2million fraud
charges — since we tracked him down in 2009 and handed him to cops.
Halligen, 53, offered to help Kate and Gerry McCann find daughter Madeleine,
who vanished on holiday in Portugal in 2007.
The Surrey-based Irishman promised to use MI6 and CIA “contacts” to track down
the three year old.
He signed a £500,000 contract but no help arrived — and the money was said to
have been blown on luxury hotels, flights and the high life.
Halligen had been on the run for months when we traced him and his girlfriend
to an upmarket hotel in Oxford and tipped off the police.
Halligen — who had run up a £14,000 bar bill after checking in under a false
name — whined “How did you find me?” as cops handcuffed him.
Now he faces years in jail in the US where he has already been ordered to pay
almost £4million to ex-business partners who claim he fleeced them. He is
wanted there on charges of fraud and money laundering.
In August, former pals in America revealed how Halligen posed as an
ex-intelligence agent to fool his way into the top reaches of Washington
society.
He often stayed in five-star hotels and paid a chauffeur £4,000-a-month to
drive him around.
He even faked his own WEDDING.
Devastated fiancee Maria Dybczak, a US lawyer, was tricked into taking part in
a lavish sham ceremony by Halligen, who was already married.
It was carried out by an actor he hired, while Dybczak’s family picked up the
massive bill.
Halligen had convinced her they could not wed in a normal way because of his
involvement in undercover operations.
Dybczak is just one of several alleged victims left out of pocket by Halligen.
But thanks to The Sun they may now get justice.
Our sting to catch him was praised in Lord Justice Leveson’s report into Press
standards last month as a “good illustration” of public interest
investigative journalism.