SFO abandons its probe into property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz

By Daily Mail ReporterThe Serious Fraud Office yesterday dropped its investigation into property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz. It is a serious setback for the Government’s top financial crime-buster, which now faces the prospect of a large bill for damages.
The case raises questions over the SFO’s ability to handle large and complex cases, and over its future. The agency narrowly missed being dismantled last year, as part of a wider overhaul.

Setback: The SFO now faces the prospect of a large bill for damages

Vincent and his brother Robert have been embroiled in a long-running probe by the SFO into the collapse of Icelandic bank Kaupthing in 2008.

They were arrested in dawn raids on their homes and offices in March 2011, but the SFO was later forced to admit there were factual errors with the evidence it used to obtain search warrants.

 

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David Green, who took over as a new broom director of the SFO earlier this year, said he would personally oversee an urgent review of the case.

The SFO confirmed that it yesterday morning wrote to Vincent Tchenguiz to inform him ‘there are now no longer reasonable grounds to consider him a suspect’ in the investigation into the collapse of Kaupthing Bank.

The SFO added that the review related only to Vincent and that there is no change to the status of Robert Tchenguiz. Vincent Tchenguiz said: ‘It is a huge relief that, under the new director of the SFO, this shadow has now been lifted and I can get on with rebuilding my life and my business interests.’

He added: ‘The damage, however, has still to be accounted for.’

Vincent wrote to the SFO last year to signal his intention to sue for damages, in a claim that could be as high as £100million. The SFO declined to comment on damages.

The case is one of a long line that have earned it the nickname the ‘Serious Farce Office’ in satirical magazine Private Eye. Controversies in recent years include the handling of a bribery investigation into the Al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

One leading lawyer in the field, Barry Vitou of Pinsent Masons, said the SFO had used up ‘another of its nine lives’ and that Green must waste no time in delivering improvements.

Vitou said he had discovered the SFO’s new whistle-blowing hotline receives over 100 calls per month, but has yet to act on one of these tip-offs.

He added: ‘The Tchenguiz case has shown the SFO at its very worst: unable to get even some of the basics right.’

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