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The UK Serious Fraud Office and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation have given themselves 24 hours to settle a dispute over the agency’s conduct during a probe into the Kazakh mining group.
ENRC’s civil trial against the SFO, which was due to start on Monday, has been put on hold for a day while the settlement talks take place.
The long-running legal battle concerns whether the SFO leaked information to the media during its 10-year investigation of alleged corruption at ENRC, which the agency has strongly denied.
The SFO and ENRC confirmed that the discussions were taking place but declined to comment further.
London’s High Court has already found the SFO liable for mis-steps that led to unnecessary costs for the Kazakh group, a ruling that could lead to millions of pounds in damages.
The parties will update the court on Tuesday as to whether an agreement has been reached, with the trial set to resume as planned if negotiations fail.
The SFO opened its investigation in 2013 but closed it last year citing “insufficient admissible evidence to prosecute”.
This is a developing story
