SYDNEY, Australia – Actress Michelle Williams' father, a prominent stock market trader, lost a court appeal Friday against a second U.S. attempt to extradite him on tax evasion charges.
Three federal court judges dismissed the attempt by 64-year-old Larry Williams to stop the U.S. and New South Wales state courts from taking steps to extradite him.
Williams, a resident of the Virgin Islands, is wanted by the Internal Revenue Service on charges of willfully attempting to evade $1.5 million in taxes from 1990 to 2001.
A Sydney magistrate is now free to consider the U.S. extradition request. A hearing date is not yet set.
Australian police, responding to a request from U.S. authorities, arrested Williams in May last year after he flew into Sydney to begin a monthlong speaking tour in Australia and New Zealand. He has been free in Sydney on $857,000 bail.
His 26-year-old daughter received an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress for her performance in the 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain," playing the wife of Heath Ledger's character.
Ledger is her real life partner and father of her daughter, Matilda.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox