Vincent Tchenguiz has lost a lawsuit brought against Johannes Rumar Johannsson, a former executive of failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
Tchenguiz and his brother Robert, both property tycoons, are embroiled in a long and complicated series of legal battles over the failure of the bank and a subsequent investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
That investigation led to their arrest in 2011, and subsequent release without charge. The SFO later settled a lawsuit brought by the brothers, paid damages, and issued an apology.
Today’s judgment relates to a lawsuit brought by Vincent Tchenguiz and other related parties including a representative of the Tchenguiz family trust. The lawsuit is against various parties including accounting firm Grant Thornton and former Kaupthing employee Johannsson.
Tchenguiz alleges that in 2009 Johannsson and others were involved in a conspiracy to encourage the SFO to investigate Kaupthing and the Tchenguiz brothers. The claim alleges they did this to gain access to documents that would help Kaputhing in its complicated insolvency proceedings.
However, in a ruling today it was determined that Tchenguiz cannot sue Johannsson because he agreed not to do so when he settled an earlier lawsuit with Kaupthing itself.
In the settlement Tchenguiz agreed to release “Kaupthing and each of the Kaupthing parties” from “any claim or cause of action arising out of their dispute whether known or unknown”, apart from in some specified circumstances.
In a hearing in January Johannsson’s lawyers argued that this agreement applied to him. Tchenguiz’s lawyers said it didn’t.
They claimed, among other things, that the lawsuit brought against Johannsson should be treated like a fraud claim, which wouldn’t be subject to the settlement agreement.
However, in today’s ruling, the judge rejected all of their points and ruled that Johannsson was entitled to summary judgment, dismissing the case against him. The ruling doesn’t affect the other parties in the litigation.
