Business

Ex-mortgage bigwig pleads not guilty

The highest ranking banker to be charged for crimes tied to the mortgage meltdown pleaded not guilty within hours of his return to the Big Apple yesterday.

Kareem Serageldin, who has been living in London, arrived at John F. Kennedy airport around 2 p.m., accompanied by US Marshals after a British court ordered his extradition.

He pleaded not guilty late yesterday at a hearing before US Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox and was released on $1.5 million bail.

The former head of Credit Suisse’s structured products group was indicted by a Manhattan federal grand jury in February 2012, along with two colleagues, for allegedly covering up losses in a $3.5 billion toxic mortgage portfolio during the housing market collapse in 2007.

The scandal forced Credit Suisse to take a $2.65 billion write-down.

Prosecutors said the former senior trader and his two cohorts falsely inflated the value of the mortgage securities to boost their bonuses.

David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with authorities.

However, Serageldin, 39, was living in London at the time his indictment was unsealed.

He was arrested in September by London police after authorities in New York grew alarmed when he tried to dump his US citizenship.

Serageldin, who made as much as $7 million a year at Credit Suisse, hoped to serve any sentence he might face in the UK, his lawyer said at the time. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

The banker’s New York law firm, Kobre & Kim, declined to comment.