Accused 'flash crash' trader takes bail case to UK High Court

LONDON (Reuters) - The British trader accused of helping trigger the 2010 Wall Street "flash crash" will appear at London's High Court on Wednesday in a bid to secure his release from custody after four weeks behind bars. Navinder Sarao, 36, was arrested by British police on a U.S extradition warrant on April 21 after being charged with wire fraud, commodities fraud and market manipulation by the U.S. Justice Department. Sarao, who has said he did nothing wrong and was just good at his job, has been in custody since then after failing to raise a 5 million pound ($7.6 million) bail security imposed by London's Westminster Magistrates' Court. Sarao's lawyer Richard Egan told a hearing at the Westminster court on Tuesday his client's assets had been frozen by the U.S. authorities and that it would be illegal for him to try to access them. Sarao will appeal against the court's refusal to change his bail conditions at the High Court on Wednesday, said Egan, who later described the current situation to reporters as "Kafkaesque". In the May 6, 2010 flash crash on Wall Street, about $1 trillion in market value was temporarily wiped out in a matter of minutes before the stock exchange recovered. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)