'We look like fools': UK-US ties threatened by corruption case row

Exchanges show how American prosecutors stymied British efforts to extradite key suspect

British anti-corruption investigators accused their US counterparts of deceiving them during a row over a criminal inquiry that threatened cooperation between the countries and prompted the UK to complain that we look like fools".

The extraordinary dispute is laid bare in a series of confidential exchanges, seen by the Guardian, between senior levels of the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which prosecutes large-scale bribery and corruption, and the US Department of Justice.