Claims against top City law firm Dechert ‘the stuff of conspiracy theories’ May 25, 2021 Allegations that a top City lawyer leaked confidential information about a Kazakh mining giant under investigation for alleged corruption are “the stuff of conspiracy theories”, the High Court has heard. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) is suing its former lawyers and the Serious Fraud Office over an SFO investigation into claims of bribery, corruption and [...]
Serious Fraud Office encouraged ‘Machiavellian’ top City lawyer to leak client’s file, court told May 24, 2021 The Serious Fraud Office encouraged a “Machiavellian” top City lawyer to leak confidential information about his client while it was under investigation for alleged bribery, corruption and fraud, the High Court heard today. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) is suing the SFO for alleged misfeasance in public office over an investigation into the Kazakh mining [...]
Wayne Barnes sets his focus on the law after he blows the whistle on refereeing January 26, 2024 Former rugby ref Wayne Barnes has traded the laws of the game for the laws of the land as he heads into practice full-time
Roman Abramovich used ‘barrage’ of legal threats to silence journalist, MPs hear March 17, 2022 A prominent British journalist has said she received legal threats from Roman Abramovich after she published a book laying out the oligarch’s links to Vladimir Putin. Reuters journalist Catherine Belton told MPs she received a “barrage” of legal threats from Russian oligarchs, including sanctioned billionaire Roman Abramovich and Everton backer Alisher Usmanov, after she published [...]
SFO drops probe into how it handled ENRC investigation June 16, 2019 The Serious Fraud Office is dropping an inquiry into its handling of an investigation into former London-listed miner ENRC. Sir David Calvert-Smith has been asked to abandon his work after being appointed to head the independent inquiry last year, the Sunday Times reported. The SFO dropped the inquiry after ENRC decided to sue it for [...]
Oligarch’s daughter found guilty of failing to hand over documents in corruption case January 30, 2020 Anna Machkevitch, the daughter of a billionaire oligarch, was today found guilty of failing to hand over documents to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in connection with a massive corruption investigation. She was found guilty of failing to supply documents required by the SFO under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act. She was ordered [...]
Nick Clegg hits back after miner ENRC tried to pull him into legal battle March 24, 2019 Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has hit back at allegations he requested information on a company which later became a client of his wife’s law firm. Lawyers for Clegg, who led the Liberal Democrats during the last coalition government, said the allegations from miner Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) were not backed up by facts, [...]
Mining giant ENRC sues UK fraud office for £70m over long-running corruption investigation March 26, 2019 Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) is suing the UK's fraud agency for £70m over its conduct during a long-running probe into alleged corruption at the Kazakh miner. ENRC, which was delisted from the FTSE in 2013, has accused the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) of “arbitrary, oppressive and unconstitutional conduct” in relation to its investigation into [...]
Miner ENRC victorious over Serious Fraud Office in ‘historic’ Court of Appeal battle on legal privilege September 5, 2018 Lawyers hailed ENRC’s Court of Appeal win over the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in a legal privilege case today as “fundamental to our legal system”. In today’s judgment the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court decision from May that compelled miner ENRC to hand over the results of an internal investigation into corruption, carried out by [...]
SFO cuts spending on lawyers as conviction rate falls July 28, 2019 The serious fraud office’s (SFO) spending on staff and external counsel fell last year, while its conviction rate crumbled to just over 53 per cent. The figures, released in the SFO’s annual report, show spending on staff fell 2.4 per cent to £30.6m last year, with spending on external counsel dropping 5.7 per cent to [...]