Inside Allenwood

This is the memoir of Giles Darby, a British banker jailed in 2008 for his involvement in a $7m fraud against his employer, NatWest. Giles and his co-defendants, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew, became the subject of extensive media coverage when the US government demanded their extradition in relation to the collapse of the energy giant Enron. The NatWest Three, as they came to be known, soon found themselves the subject of a debate about why three British citizens accused of defrauding a British bank should be tried in America, and then at the center of a political scandal going all the way to Tony Blair. The NatWest Three faced the prospect of up to 35 years in prison if they were found guilty. After almost 10 years fighting their extradition, the Three eventually reached a plea deal with prosecutors to serve 37 months in prison each as restitution for one count of wire fraud. Giles served part of his sentence in Allenwood prison, Pennsylvania, and was then allowed to return to the UK to finish his time. In stark contrast to the luxurious life of a high-flying banker, Giles was forced to adapt quickly in order to keep his health and sanity intact and passed the time by writing letters to his family back in the UK that detailed the daily events of the prison: the drudgery of lock-downs, the dangers of routine violence and the agony of being separated from everyone he loved. But alongside the horror stories about gang beatings and brutality, Giles also wrote about the larger-than-life characters he met and the unexpected antics of his fellow inmates.