FUGITIVE banker Ewan Launder, facing corruption charges related to the multi-billion dollar Carrian banking scandal, has won the right to challenge legal action to deport him to Hong Kong. Launder has been fighting to block his extradition for nearly three years and authorities fear he is stalling until current international treaties expire with the change in sovereignty. The former chief executive of Wardley, the investment arm of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, fears he could face the death penalty after China resumes control of the territory next year. A Legal Department team will fly to London this week for a judicial review starting on May 13 in Britain's High Court. 'He could be holding out until 1997,' said a government official with knowledge of the case. 'It could be he is trying to do what Lorraine Osman did.' Osman, former chairman of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance Ltd delayed his extradition for seven years by filing 10 applications of habeas corpus. But he was eventually returned to Hong Kong, convicted on corruption charges and jailed. He has since been released and is living in London. Launder, 60, is accused of accepting $45 million in 'sweeteners' in connection with the 1983 Carrian banking scandal. He was arrested at Heathrow airport in September 1993 after an Independent Commission Against Corruption manhunt across three continents. Carrian was Hong Kong's biggest corporate collapse, resulting in losses of $6.2 billion.
