The trial of Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz’s £300m-plus damages claims against the Serious Fraud Office has been delayed until 28 April 2014.
In a case management conference, Justice Eder put the trial back from January next year to April, after the SFO submitted that the disclosure burdens it faces meant that the existing timetable could not be maintained.
The trial is expected to last 12 weeks.
The judge will consider in September whether the trial should be split, with issues of the SFO’s liability to be decided first, and assessment of damages considered later.
A preliminary hearing will take place next month in which the SFO will seek permission to withdraw its earlier admission of the Tchenguiz’s trespass claims.
The case regards the SFO’s dawn raids on the brothers in 2011 in relation to the collapse of Icelandlic bank Kaupthing.
Lawyers representing the Tchenguiz parties had argued that a split trial should be ordered now in order to preserve the January trial date, with Bankim Thanki QC, representing Vincent, saying that it would lead to “huge potential savings in costs”.
Dominic Dowley QC, appearing for the SFO, said that his clients “strongly resisted” a split trial because of the significant delay it would cause to resolution of the proceedings.
The judge criticised both sides for their handling of the case so far, calling for the Tchenguiz parties to provide a “properly pleaded” case and expressing disappointment with the SFO for “unacceptable” delays in requesting additional information.
He said: “I am disappointed with regard to the approach by all parties with regard to the necessity of dealing with matters speedily. It is a matter of extreme regret that it took, apparently, the Serious Fraud Office from 3 December until the end of January before putting in train real attempts to deal with disclosure.”
