Permission refused to use disclosed documents in foreign proceedings

At the end of June the SFO announced that it had settled claims brought by Vincent Tchenguiz arising from the manner in which his alleged involvement in the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing hf. was investigated by the SFO.

This investigation had seen both he and his brother arrested in a March 2011 dawn raid that was later found to be based on unlawfully obtained search warrants. Whilst Vincent Tchenguiz has settled his claims against the SFO claims brought by his brother Robert Tchenguiz are to be heard by the high court later this year.

These proceedings have generated a number of noteworthy interim decisions concerning disclosure, including decisions concerning inadvertent disclosure of privileged material (see Alan Williams' article on this on 16 May 2014 by clicking here), the application of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 to disclosure in civil proceedings and third-party disclosure orders.

This latest decision relates to Robert Tchenguiz's and other corporate claimants' ("RT") rights to use documents disclosed in the current English proceedings in concurrent proceedings in Guernsey.  As can be gleaned from the title, the court refused permission.  However, it was a difficult balancing act; for the full article and case commentary please click here.