Robert Tchenguiz has vowed to pursue damages from third parties over a devastating Serious Fraud Office investigation.
The property entrepreneur made the assertion after it was announced earlier today that the SFO has agreed to pay him £1.5m , following the collapse of an investigation against him two years ago.
The settlement for damages and costs relates to an investigation into the troubled Icelandic bank Kaupthing, which collapsed during the 2008 banking crisis. The controversial case bought by the SFO was quashed in 2012, and Tchenguiz has described it as causing “devastation”.
His brother, Vincent, also reached an out-of-court settlement with the SFO last week.
Robert Tchenguiz said: “I do not believe that, without external influences, the SFO would ever have had any possible cause to arrest me for suspected wrongdoing. It is now quite evident that third parties played a major part in this hugely damaging farce.”
Accountancy firm Grant Thornton is largely believed to be one of the parties Tchenguiz and his brother Vincent will sue.
Tchenguiz added: “The most important thing to me is that the SFO has now apologised to me for the wrongs suffered and has, finally, cleared my name. Reputation is all in the business community and I have at last had mine restored. I am satisfied that the taxpayer should not bear the full financial pain of the SFO’s, and its former director’s, misguided actions.”
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
