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Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation has settled a lawsuit against Britain’s Serious Fraud Office over alleged media leaks, without the agency paying any damages to the former FTSE 100 company, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The deal marks a reprieve for the SFO in a years-long legal battle over its conduct in a criminal investigation into the Kazakh mining group, which crashed out of the FTSE in 2013 over corruption allegations.
The case, which was due to go to trial this week, concerned whether the prosecutor had leaked information to the media during a decade-long criminal investigation into ENRC, which the SFO had strongly denied.
ENRC will have to pay £500,000 to an SFO official as part of the settlement, according to a court document seen by the Financial Times.
The SFO and ENRC said in London’s High Court on Tuesday that the case had been settled for an undisclosed amount.
The SFO said on Tuesday: “Throughout this case we have vigorously defended the claims. A confidential settlement has now been reached.”
ENRC, which is now part of the Luxembourg-based Eurasian Resources Group, said it was “pleased” to report that a settlement had been reached.
Both parties declined to comment on the financial terms of the agreement.
John Gibson and Tony Puddick, a former and current SFO official respectively, were also named as defendants in ENRC’s lawsuit over the alleged briefings to journalists. ENRC must pay Puddick £500,000 as part of the settlement, according to the court order.
Despite the settlement in the media leak case, the SFO is still expected to pay millions of pounds in damages to ENRC in a separate case over its handling of the criminal investigation.
The agency closed its investigation into ENRC last year, citing “insufficient admissible evidence to prosecute.”
The lawsuit settled this week is part of a series brought by ENRC since 2017, which included allegations that its own lawyer colluded with the SFO to fuel the prosecutor’s investigation.
Neil Gerrard, a former London partner at law firm Dechert, was retained by ENRC between 2010 and 2013 to investigate allegations of misconduct at the firm in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kazakhstan.
A judge ruled that Gerrard had provided information to the SFO without ENRC’s consent and against the company’s interests. The SFO opened a criminal investigation into ENRC in 2013.
A court ruled last year that the SFO had “seriously breached its own duties” in the way it handled the case, which pitted the much-criticized British government agency against ENRC, owned by wealthy oligarchs.
The separate process to determine how much the SFO will have to pay ENRC for its conduct in the criminal investigation is pending.
The SFO has set aside £237.7 million to cover legal costs associated with the ENRC lawsuit, two and a half times its annual budget. ENRC is seeking around £250 million from the SFO and Dechert.
Mr Justice Waksman said: “without the SFO’s misconduct the CI would not have started [criminal investigation]”.
Puddick and Gibson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This article has been updated to clarify that the SFO has not paid compensation to ENRC as part of this week’s settlement