Property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz’s legal battle with accounting firm Grant Thornton and executives of failed Icelandic lender Kaupthing is scheduled to go to trial in the autumn.
The case is listed to start at London’s commercial court in October and is set to last three months.
Property developer brothers Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz have been embroiled in a long and complicated series of legal battles over an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into their business in the wake of the failure of Kaupthing.
In October, Vincent Tchenguiz reached a settlement in the £2.2bn lawsuit that he brought against Kaupthing, meaning his claims against the bank and Grant Thornton were withdrawn. Robert Tchenguiz’s case, however, is still alive.
And following a case management conference at the end of last month, judge Mr Justice Knowles, who is managing the case prior to trial, ruled that the trustees of the Tchenguiz companies should pay £1m into escrow as security for costs in case Tchenguiz loses the case.
The security was requested by lawyers representing Johannes Runar Johannsson, a former Kaupthing board member and one of the defendants. His lawyers had been requesting security of £1.75m, but the judge reduced it to two tranches of £500,000.
In his case, Robert Tchenguiz alleges that executives from Kaupthing and UK accounting firm Grant Thornton were involved in a conspiracy to encourage the SFO to start an investigation.
That SFO investigation led to the brothers arrest in 2011, and subsequent release without charge. The SFO later settled a lawsuit brought by the brothers, paid damages, and issued an apology.
Robert Tchenguiz and others v Grant Thornton UK LLP and others