Serious Fraud Office calls off its Icelandic bank probe

By JAMIE GRIERSON
Published on 16/10/2012 00:11

THE SERIOUS Fraud Office (SFO) has called a halt to its three-year investigation into the UK’s links to a failed Icelandic bank.

The probe into Iceland’s Kaupthing last year saw two of Britain’s wealthiest property magnates, Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, arrested after a string of dawn raids in London.

But new SFO director David Green has pulled the plug on the investigation, launched in December 2009, after the agency found “insufficient evidence to justify its continuation”.

With the investigation closed, Robert Tchenguiz is no longer considered a suspect. His brother Vincent was told he was no longer a suspect in June. Both denied any wrongdoing following their arrest in March 2011.

The decision marks the end of an investigation that is considered to have caused the SFO significant reputational damage.

The case against Vincent 
Tchenguiz unwound earlier this year after the SFO was forced into making a series of concessions about having misunderstood evidence used to obtain search warrants against him.

A judicial review into the legality of the search warrants used against the brothers added to concerns about the SFO’s handing of complex economic crimes.